001okay so we have a calendar meeting we have to have one now and then we'll have to have another one next month April 1st and I just wanted to give you a little overview of the calendar and I know we have some committee members with us where did they go Jennifer Neil cook was very instrumental and um the calendar committee Miss shiplet is here miss trpo she's here something there you are where are you so also committee oure was had we parents we had staff members I can read you the the active members were Julie shifflet Christy trpo Mr Gibson was also on the calendar committee Darla huddle who's a 3K teacher at ring Bank um Stephanie Burns who is an instructional coach and coordinator Cindy solac who is science teacher here at high school
002Gina hary is Elementary at Hillsboro Lucy messo is a parent Rachel mol is a teacher at Marlon Middle Jennifer N cook is a teacher here Christy Hammond are technology Mara beverage who is commun in schools at Green Bank like I said we invited some other people at well but those were our active members and I wanted to share with you um the responses that we got this is the all stakeholders the community the students the staff parents we had 427 respondents to our survey so the very first thing of course just wanted me roll um so and then like I prefer to start school and we asked because we kept hearing like about would you like to start during the state fair and possibly end in May after the state fair and end in June
003or after Labor Day and end later in June and you can see um the majority and it wasn't too much uh 43% was after Labor Day and in later in June was actually what the the most the 43% but you had right right after that 30% was during the state fair possibly end in May these questions and answers were created by the committee so how important is it for students to finish the first semester before Christmas break and of course you know I think the staff would tell you that's more important probably to a teacher thinking that you know they get it all completed they come back after the holiday break and they're ready to go so you can see uh about three was the highest ranking there uh when do you think spring break
004should be on the calendar the week before Easter the week after and that's about 5050 it's 48 52% see it all right whoops when the school system holds professional learning meetings and students are out of school what day of the week would you prefer the biggest preference there is actually Monday and in regard to the previous question would you prefer these meetings to be held an entire day half a day in the morning or half day in the afternoon everybody wanted an entire day I'm sure as a parents point of view getting child care is a lot of that you know this was a question that we really hadn't thought about asking families before but what day would you prefer for graduation and we threw out a Friday evening a Saturday or a Sunday and
00546% set a Friday evening and 40 um 5% set a Saturday so [Laughter] got to get rid of my box over here me do this okay now I'm getting if graduation is on a Saturday or Sunday would you prefer a morning like at 11: afternoon and around two or at evening around 5 most people want it an afternoon and would you prefer the for graduation to be on Memorial Day weekend uh most people said no and actually we there is with the calendar looking around because I know Jennifer NE boys has good explanations for this but you can't just say we want Memorial Day weekend or graduation is going to be here all depends on how your calendar works out this the West Virg Department of Education has created a few years ago wonderful program
006because it used to be all done like paper pencil and sending it in and Exel spreadsheets and now it's a program and it tells you when you've made a mistake in the calendar that you're you have an error or warning and that was the end of the questions so what then happened next was our Committee created three calendars based on these results you have a copy of those we're going to put those out um for voting but we're going to wait until after the April 1st board meeting because that'll be another calendar meeting so people can be there ask questions if they have any concerns or you know how this uh how we came up with the three calendars but those are not in color so you may may be a little hard to read
007what each day is but we we wanted to base those we have one starts later goes later in school year you know one of them that starts early looking at the different spring breaks so that is the calendar proposals for 2526 so anybody have any questions are we allowed to see them or just theard oh you can see them um and like I say I'm gonna put them I'm gonna put them they were like public there well they're they work in progress well they I think I got I got several question so we have one we have one calendar that finishes on um the 22nd then the first semester finishes Before Christmas right and then that back to they they finish after you come back winter break [Music] right you have this one and are
008these days on the these days here these are the these are have to we have to take these off right correct so days you're required to have them during C months okay so these this is what these have to be taken off on these days right here there are all well so like if I'm looking at calendar three so like if for example like I love the idea of starting after Labor Day but just some um things I was just thinking of so like would Sports still start like last week of July like fall sports like how how does stuff like that work football starts first day of August They Got Dat so regardless that school is starting for another month oh yeah there is a coaches meeting the first of August that all the
009head coaches have to go to in the state and usually assistant coaches run the first day and then the second day is when they really that might families might and then my other question is starting ending later like iamp like obviously the county would have to kind of well even like looking at this year all the snow days we have an option of adding to the those days in June each Camp starts like Sunday and so and I know that's large you know no I'm just curious about that stuff right yeah thank I like the question about the sports or putting that in there I'm going to make a note that's something can you make a not calendar are they allowed to have games if they're not in school right that's I prac for years
010years ago the first game was always before school always you just got run activitys like you do they build legisl to start after Labor Day in day yeah 180 days that passes does that make we we don't choose the third calendar what does it do to I guess we go back to the drawing board we have to have these in May Alex pass or not but it is in there and will it be for the following year to start sometimes they do that too de I mean holid movement on that at all when information taking you we seen any sign on that at all we have not added that to the survey but we can for next year and I can tell you that counties years ago tried it and trying to get staed this
011County tried years ago bus driving every 10 years failure for 10 years we miss the first day of De season not had and tried to back on Tuesday and Wednesday well that was they're not coming note Wednesday and that didn't work because nobody showed up on Monday kids didn't show up bus drivers didn't show up so that didn't work so that is why we now have the week off because I think May on Thursday and Friday that might like it even better than Monday Tuesday Thanksgiving I know Bill did about that about sh60 days oh no yeah you're right you're right right ask even if we adopt a calendar now would that would that still be changed like Could It Be I'm looking at at M grer I'm assuming that is would be for the
01226th 27th school year is that correct or is unless they put it into effect if they put it into effect it would go into first July yeah because that's when most of your bills is going to take F the bridion right be changed even if you voted on a calendar it would have to be you wouldn't have a said calendar then it would just be you got to go between these two days I like I like calendar number one the best myself well you'll be able to vote starting April 1st but anyway okay that is we're over to you perfect mhm yep okay it's time for us to start our regular board meeting uh P County Board of Education will come to order it's at the P County high school media area inest start to
013I'd like to note that all members are present now we can open with the pledges Lees to the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you first item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the mo Education meeting held on February the 18 202 do I have a motion Mr M made the motion have a second a second Mr MCN seconds it any questions about the minute from the last board meeting no sir caring none all those signify by saying I motion carries item number two is the approval of the agenda do I have a motion I made Mr mes made the motion do I have a
014second second Mr mcab second any corrections or addtions to the agenda he left off Riley and Joseph I'll get please put them on for number five and Mrs Barkley and I have made huge notes for the next I got her okay I'll get her here somewhere let's see you want to put her five this under report I've apologized to them okay we go and then number 13 um that should be Elanor Bell not gum yeah went from gum to Bell any any others or Corrections anybody else have anything all those in favor think by saying I motion Carri delegations of we were talking about moving we decided I talked to Miss kin we're just going to let the delegations go and then the state department okay y so we don't have any yes we have
015delegations we do but we're going to move them to later no we'll do them now you going do them now okay how many we've got Hol delegation [Music] oh she's going to be on the thing yeah around okay let's get the let's get the two uh Nathaniel seore Step Up you have five minutes don't you set that thing for 10 now you go ahead so um I play a lot of Chess um that's good I'm not gonna say I'm super good at it but I do enjoy the game and my dad taught me when I was probably nine or and one of the first things he taught me after showing me which pieces move which way was you've got to think you can't just make a move and then to go with that you got
016to say well if I move here what's my opponent going and then what's what am I going to do response to that what's he going to do in response to that you got to think as far ahead as you can and in general the person that can think the furthest ahead will win now why am I telling it I'm telling you that because I think it applies like a lot of uh lessons in chess to life and it applies to the work that we're going to be doing here for the next few months really for everything you guys do because we have a lot of issues to fix in chess they'd be called blunders they they mistakes that have been made I made one a couple weeks ago really well and I was making a
017move quickly and made a move and as soon as I soon as I hit send on my phone I realized that move was stupid my phone it saw it immediately capitalized on it and I was down a piece just gave it to him I felt dumb but I could have resigned said okay I'm but I didn't and I feel like we're in a similar situation with especially with the high school right now the state of emergency we've made some mistakes we've lost some pieces we're down in the game but in my real chess game I didn't res on it kept kept playing and eventually my opponent made and I capitalized on then he made another and I capitalized on and I made a move that forced him to do something he didn't want to do
018and I ended up winning that game but there's a second part to this and that is you can't play chess without knowing seeing the board and looking at the strategy you can't just look at over here oh I want to go over here and do this thing because that's the I want to take that's the score I want I want to be in You' got a plan or if he moves over here prepared for that he doesn't do the thing I want to do I gota be prepared for that too I gotta look at all the options that's your task now there are lots there's lots of uncertainty there's uncertainty with the state of emergency for the high school there's uncertainty with the budget like there is every year and this year I think there's
019even more uncertainty the federal and state governments are unpredictable let's say right now and we need to have plans for all of those things we need to see the good path what happens if things work really really well we need to have a plan for what happens if disaster happens and and things go really badly for us we need have a plan for those two extremes and everything in the middle and I'm hoping tonight that this will be the start of seeing those PL that we'll hear from the state board or sorry the State Department of Education we'll hear from the Consultants that we've been discussing with already the superintendent's been been working with we'll hear about the budget and we'll start to see those plans I and and I think everyone in the room
020wants to see their and I'm hoping tonight that everyone in the room will walk away with the next action help help school because nobody's in this room at 4:45 on a beautiful absolutely GES March day if they didn't care about our spits and I'll leave you with one final thing that I've learned in my chess career which is that hope is not a strategy thanks thank you Mr and that was four minutes and 20 seconds yeah you got buy still got a minut you thank you for your you have been a public speaker you've done good over Years thank you so much Joshua Hardy thank you very much uh I think you know as it was just eloquently put we're we're we're in a state of emergency um and I think from what we all
021kind of timeline this thing out right now is that we are effectively under the control of the State uh and unless we get our house in order by August um the state's going to assume control of all of our schools um and that's a pretty dire situation to be in um how we got there and why we got there um is evident in this report um there was a systemwide failure I think a lot of that can be from attributed from the top down um the leadership and the communication um from central office the procedures that needed to be in place the directives that needed to come down were simply not there uh with all due respect to superintendent Bostic she is announced that her retirement is June 1 I think it's highly imperative that
022we begin a search for a new superintendent immediately we are asking the new person to come in basically to take over a sinking ship not only that I'm hearing that up to 33% of the districts throughout this state are going to be looking for new superintendence this year so there is not going to be a gluttony of folks and faced with the budget constraints that we already know we have I do not think we should waste another minute working with what we have right now we need to find new leadership immediately and that needs to go in place the second thing that I would like to say is that one thing that I think this report lost over or missed is it made a point that the central office is doing a lot more with
023a lot less and generally speaking I believe that to be true as I believe that to be a true across the board with everybody in every industry in every facet of life for everything but as we presented to this board last year as the lsic from 2017 to 2024 administrative positions had increased by 22% teacher positions had decreased over the same span of time by - 2.4% and so as we're getting into this period of budget and riffing and again from the central office zero plans zero discussion zero anything about what are we doing what role are our teachers going to play What role are the programs going to play how can we offer the most to all kids with what we have this has to be a discussion for everyone and the current leadership
024is incapable of doing that so I would ask that we change things around here forth with thank you thank you uh we got Katie Workman she's on I'm going to hope that I can get Katie on here I don't see her on here but let me get this way are all those people on are those people on the they're watching so those are was they was telling me after the last meeting this both I have a hard time hearing well I don't know you do I don't either because we use you know the technology we have does anyone have Katie's number I do do you want to call her and just since I don't see her on here and just put her on speaker phone if that's okay I knew she said she couldn't make
025it to the board meeting or something right and so she said she was going to join us around 5:00 uh online and it's 5 o' right so we're pretty good she might be thought maybe she could get up here in time yeah there is one unverified here but can't we just hold it up in case she would call in or come in and we can go with her can you send her a text and just ask her to call you when she's that miss her right cousins are that's right thank you let's move along superintendent report to special recognition let her know she didn't lose out if she if she can call in we'll we back to it so just a little bit about Personnel season I did meet with Jason long last week to
026go over the proposals that I have for each School I've also worked with our directors our Treasurer and our principles so I can tell you that no currently no full-time teachers will be displaced we will have some transfering among a couple schools because we have an open position at that school and so they're allowed to do an in school um transfer so we'll do those first we will be placing some eats which are our first and second grade AIDS uh some of those maybe put on transfer due to smaller numbers coming or leaving um those classes yes sir EAD what you say what's that mean early childhood the AIDS in our first second and third grades Early Childhood Aid so this is our year that we will start having next year start adding the third
027grade AIDS and so we are going to have openings for AIDS so if anybody knows of anyone who's interested um when we put that posting out we'll be excited so then I wanted to talk to you about Christine Hamond she is at a technology conference but she wanted me to give you a summary of what she's been doing after the last board meeting because I'm going to look at Frosty because he kept saying word when you she just word word word word Mr and MCD kept saying word throughout the whole meeting so the secure Royal schools reauthorization or we just call it SRS funding there had two call to action Flyers um sent to All parents and staff by email and text notification the flyer was also posted on our social media accounts all five
028schools as well as the district and our websites um and she suggested that maybe as a group of you know from the the five board members that you may want to send our representativ a letter together I think it's a great idea I is too a letter sign presid um there we go the snow day update she's Secretary of the board snow day update we did um email and text parent on snow days and makeup days with a new calendar for this year Miss Hammond has also posted those on our website and social media so we did l spring break I'm looking at changing a couple of those dates I worked with the state department with Travis um Gibson the calendar to reopen up this year's calendar so I can make our adjustments supp so
029a state of emergency update this is something that U we work with Mr Kelly and Miss kryer chy hment has created a state of emergency web page that CLS the decoration has a L special circumstance review and she's like if Mr Kelly and Miss kryer approve that then she'll make that public um and I'll share that with him um later so right now it's not a public page but it contains just common questions that she has heard and information how to get transcripts and things like that and also she wanted to make sure she did send out an invitation by email and text to all Pocahontas County high school or p County School parents I'm sorry uh about tonight's meeting and the um weas Parent Portal she has created an electronic page for the parents
030on the website for parents to report issues with their parent portal access and the report will go to the school so they can verify that parent information is correct but she says she's working on that she has a couple of in in it that she's working on her and I plan to to uh shoot a video explaining the attendance policy and we also have a stakeholder survey that was actually created for federal programs and it's a a different survey than what we have used in the past Miss trpo has been very active in creating that survey again I will be sending it to Mr Kelly at his western department of education for approval we will be send that out and then the last thing that I would like to just remind you all because we
031all need reminders throughout this the year if the pro if a parent or staff member reaches out to you all please ask them if they have called to school if they have talked to if it's a parent have you talk to that teacher that your child is having a concern with the first thing I do when I called me have you spoken with the teacher next question have you talked to the principal and if they're still dissatisfied have they talked to the director in charge and if you and I will send you all another organizational chart so you know what all the areas that our directors are in charge of after that they come to me and if they don't get what answer they want then tell them that you'll hear them but if you
032all would just filter those uh questions to us now the last meeting where after you told me any anything I got to send to you that's what I've been thank you very much thank you is she there yeah we unmute her uh Suzanne did you hear that put in the paper no Cuts we do that follow with you let's go back let's follow up with Miss btic first if you got any questions Mr we're going to write a letter the Christy was W to to SRS can we also get one that we asked for for the attendants thing to send to the delegates when we were at Marlon kids to do it we agreed to write one send them that's two we can sign them at our April meeting okay all right when you get
033the letter Sher has written email letters right I'll come by any time Cher just call me what national course correlation is trying to do is put our SRS um house bill in with the res A continuing resolution to continue budg that big beautiful Bill everybody's talking about it's continuing no it's it's the one it's the stop Gap one until the big beautiful Bill okay but included in that we want it to be it's a threee authorization mostal house members Miller represent us verbal approval that she was going to approve it Riley Moore representative new representative not unless he's done it in the last day or two I have not had time to V both of our Senators have co-sponsored the deal on the Senate side but the house the Senate needs the house to pass
034it to go to the senate for and it's important because they're not sure where we put it one year we put it on the heum bill for the SRS are they are they raising it any or leaving it the way it was your authorization so we got 318,000 last year something like that and well each year it have been cut well they show it on the website which I can for you the email I got yesterday from I'll you that has a map at the bottom of it which you can click on the map and it will show you the am I think it's count 436,000 out to your delegates push it through questions anybody got question Miss that's yours but not kati's on there we can we can go in go to meeting Katie
035are you with us she was she will be just a second see see right there turn on aoud mic there you go okay let's see can you hear me yes yes Kati you got five minutes okay thank you I apologize for being late um okay I'm addressing the board this evening to express my dissatisfaction with the way two specific incidents I've brought to the attention of the uh m principal superintendent and the Board of Education have been handled I bring these incidents up to illustrate that as a parent of a child at Marlon Elementary School it is unclear to me the proper channels to voice concerns about specific problems relating to my child in a chain of command when I am dissatisfied with the resolution the same lack of clarity exists around bringing forth issues
036that relate to matters of school Improvement I recognize the following questions I have are not going to be answered during this delegation time but I feel it is important to publicly State the questions and concerns I have I do not feel it is appropriate to go into detail regarding specifics of concerns surrounding personal circumstances of how these two incidents are related I continue to ask to be advised on how properly to voice my disatisfaction about the matter about the manner in which these concerns have been addressed um the first item is um issues around uh drop off in the morning ings at Marlon Elementary School um the first question I have is um the steps addressing issues with drop off um outlined in the minutes from the September 30th 2024 marlington elementary school lsic meeting
037indicated that parents should not I assume it was a typo um Park in the drop off Zone and that the principal would look into getting signs to designate no parking there was an call that was sent out indicating parents should not Park in the drop off Zone and I'm asking why this hasn't been enforced um and why there were no signs put in place when that's what the minutes detailed was supposed to happen um and additionally why are there only minutes from the September meeting um available on the school's website um the second question uh some parents are taking their children inside of the building to their classrooms um are all parents allowed to do this uh and what would preclude a parent from entering a school uh the last question in regards to this
038uh is when can we expect a resolution to the lack of order um at a drop at drop off and are there steps that can be taken to mitigate some of the problems in the meantime I.E enforcement of no parking and drop off Zone directions to Rober turnaround spot um the next item uh is in regards to Safe a safe School environment and school Improvement um and I did want to note that this morning I was made aware that the West Virginia Senate has just passed Senate Bill 199 outlining specific actions for grades K through six when a student exhibits violent threatening and disruptive behavior and hopefully this is getting some attention on the state level that will help us local um my question is what is the policy that would address a student who
039has made a threat of physical harm to another student student not really technically bullying um and the following is a timeline of how I've tried to answer this question and incidents that have prompted me to act in April of 24 my child was threatened at school um I was not notified when I found out I asked the principal what the policy was just determining how the situation was handled um I was not given a specific policy I was not referenced a specific policy I was told that the child uh making the threat was kicked out and if there was repetitive Behavior there would be further consequences um I want to make it clear that I never intended to be given confidential information uh but I did assume that there would be a way to give
040the P specific policy um showing the steps that are taken uh in September 24 I presented my concerns to the Board of Education during delegations about safety and to make the board aware of the experience from the previous school year and I asked for a review of policies concerning school safety and communication after the meeting um I received an email from a board member member telling me to search for safety for our students to find relevant policies On The Board website specifically in regards to bullying um when I search for the policy um it didn't appear that my question was being answered with these policies but however as of this evening I have found a policy um that addresses um this specific uh concern um and I've also um been made aware of a Citizens
041Complaint Form um that I will be pursuing um now that I actually know what the policy in question is um in February of this year so just a couple weeks ago um I made the superintendent the Board of Education the Marlon Elementary School lsic members aware via email of a situation where a parent was displaying acts of aggression toward another parent at drop off that the principal was witnessed to I indicated that this incident was related to the previous incident I relayed to the board of education and principal that I would be a available to discuss the personal details privately with the appropriate parties no one has addressed this or asked for further information to hear my concerns in specific to the personal connections um I reached out directly to a board member who did
042take the time to speak with me in detail about the current incident and the previous incident and my concerns surrounding the awareness of these behaviors and the lack of Ed action taken to set a standard for safe a safe School environment um my NE my question regarding this is does Marlon Elementary School have a current student handbook the school website has one that hasn't been updated since 2015 and I don't recall receiving one at the beginning of the school year um as I raise these questions for your consideration I would like to suggest that the board Andor School explore and pursue a parent SLC caregiver handbook detailing proper procedures and expectations regarding these issues and others as a way to encourage communication between parents and the School Board of Education Administration and staff to minimize
043conflict and confusion I would also ask the board explore we're gonna have to move on with our meeting all right I will send you the last paragraph please do please do email it to us okay y thank you information reports and AC academic updates West Virginia Department of Education spatial circumstances review report uh Mr Kelly is he here yes he's tell him he's up don't well no we don't care just so everybody can hear you we want everybody to hear this I'm going to se the floor here to uh Direct croner who's going to deliver the report and and then we'll entertain any questions or comments that you all might have M crer welcome hello hello I still have my teacher voice so I think we should be okay I'm accused of using that quite
044frequently um thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening and to address you um we had a beautiful drive I don't think we could have picked a better day to uh to drive down to Pocahontas County and it's it's always pretty when we're here um first and foremost I would be remiss if I failed to mention um the staff at at Pocahontas County High School um you know throughout this experience we have um noted repeatedly that they are extremely dedicated to their children here um to their students they have demonstrated so much potential um they were very forthcoming and welcoming during our visit which is not always when you're working in accountability rolling up we're not always greeted with um open arms but you know everyone has been just really forthcoming
045with us and very welcoming and um they've inherited a lot of responsibility for things that were not within their control um and and they've they've rolled with the punches this year and um I want to commend them for that um Miss Klein is is going to to speak to that a little bit further but I want to say you know the people are not a problem here the people are not the problem here thank you um the kids are awesome um you know at this school and I think that I've heard that you saw some of that with the demonstrations this evening from the student body um there is just the potential here for a world class high school and um this is going to be one heck of a comeback story if it's if
046it's done correctly um so I'll I'll I'll start with that um all of the problems that we identif ified in the report um and and everything that we have um worked with Miss Klein on so far it's all very fixable and um it's just a matter of we have to establish procedures you know when I get in the car in the morning and I drive to work I don't have to think about okay do I turn left here or do I turn right here or do I you know it's automatic because I know the procedure I've done it over and over and so my mind can be kind of freed up to be thinking about okay well I've got that meeting at 9: or I've got you know this or what's for dinner or you
047know what time do I have to pick up my kids or you know those types of things because I'm not having to focus on figuring out the procedure of how to get to work when you don't have a procedure established it takes brain power every day just to know what to do one moment to the next and it holds everyone back and so I think that that's the thing that we have to do is make sure that we have established procedures here for everything and that people know them and they follow them and they maintain them and so I'm going to talk a little bit this evening about the procedures and the proper protocols for you know what to do in a state of emergency because it sounds so ominous and um what it's really
048meant to convey is sense of urgency and prioritization um and and that is really what the state of emergency is is it is a period of a sense of urgency and prioritization to improve yes what's your name my name is Alexandra crer Alexandra crer thank you Mr crer I'm ready take my notes okay um during the state of emergency period you're going to have specific targets for improvements and they're going to be created based on the information in the report and also um through working with Miss DED reply um what's gleaned from her work here and she's met with the staff and she's worked with the school already and you know let me tell you you are so fortunate to have access to her um her experience her her nature her drive to help kids
049and to help people are going to be really invaluable to this process and so I'm so grateful to have her experience her expertise and her work ethic contributing to this um one of the things that you know I think has touched on already I heard um superintendent bosk talk about communication and that's something that I want to convey to you as well that you know communication really needs to be streamlined in this process because we need everybody to get on the highway the state department the the teachers the uh oh I've lost something out of my hair here robot the um you know the teachers the central office everybody needs to be on the highway we can't take side roads and that is especially evident with communication we all need to be going in the
050same direction and so the communication really needs to be streamlined um a lot of problems um that we identified with the procedures and things were based on um people reaching out individually to get advice from different sources or talking to people individually outside of you know a collective meeting and that can sometimes create um confusion and and mix messages um you know when when folks reach out to get um feedback on a decision or if they reach out to get information about a policy or something like that and then they they come back and they share it sometimes the whole message Gets Lost in Translation and so we want to make sure that everybody is on the same team going the same direction throughout the entire process um the state of emergency is a six-month
051period for improvement okay and it does not mean that at the end of six months we're taking you over if you haven't met all these charget That's not how that works it's a six-month time period to say okay we're going to revisit this in six months to determine what the next action is um at that point in time we're going to report progress to our board um and they will make a decision and it can can be that we release a district from the state of emergency completely it can be that we extended another six months we can say hey you're making great progress we want to give you six more months of this prioritized support to see where you are or it can be you know we've had a lot of push back there's
052really not the capacity folks have said you know that they have a a um an unwillingness to change they've demonstrated that they're not going to follow advice or or do things differently and at that point then our board would would say that it would be necessary to intervene for the best interest of the students um but those are different options I do not anticipate that anyone here is going to um you know have any sort of pushback or you know lack of capacity or anything like that I I from what I've seen so far I would anticipate that this is going to be a process where we're able to work together um for the betterment of the kids um so at the August meeting we're going to report progress that does not mean that every
053single thing that we identify is going to be completed at that point in time okay that is not realistic things take time this didn't happen overnight it's not going to be fixed overnight it's going to be a long-term process as far as establishing those procedures and protocols um so we need you just during this process to demonstrate rate that you're willing and that you're capable and you can stay focused on making those improvements and establishing that and I have no doubt that um that that will be the case so everybody has a role to play in this process it's not you know us versus them anymore it's all of us together looking at you know what we can do to fix what's been identified you know we can't go back and change anything that was
054reported in this that's that's in the past but what we can do is move forward and in moving forward every one of us has a part to play and so first let's talk about board members okay you guys have the easiest role in this because yes you do yes you do because you do not have to fix anything and you do not supervise anyone except the superintendent that's true so you don't have to um you know you don't have that responsibility for being the boots on the ground your responsibility is providing financial and policy resources to support the process and pointing everyone to the chain of command you do those two things and you're going to be doing your job as board members okay I want you to to hear updates on the progress which
055is going to be really fun um when you hear about things getting fixed that's going to be great ask questions about that proc process um and you know support the progress that's being made that's your role how we going get these update well every two weeks we can do it at every meeting or whatever right as as often as you would like to add that to we'll have it on the superintended updates that way we can tell what's going on sure um and the good thing about that is if if if they tell if Mrs bik tells us then it's going out over the airway too what the process to the parents and to the concerned grandparents and and citizens absolutely and um you know we want to make sure that the every bit of
056progress is communicated because you know the kids here and the staff here they work really hard and and they have a lot of good things that are going on as well and so we don't want that progress to get you know overshadowed we want we want them to be able to to talk about the improvements that they've made and and the good things that they're working toward um one of the things is really um where a lot of board members can get in the weeds with this kind of stuff so I'll caution you against um hearing from employees um individually or collectively th those complaints or those concerns need to be brought back through the chain of command Okay um also making public declarations about what should happen or shouldn't happen or directives to specific
057employees board members don't really have the authority to direct anyone to do anything except as a group as part of a motion so individually you can't say hey I want you to do this or I want you to do that as part of this okay don't engage in discussions to the extent that you can outside of an agenda item at a public board meeting okay and we want you to discuss it at a meeting hear the progress and that sort of thing but we want it to be done in the appropriate manner okay your superintendent providing leadership and oversight to the process communicating the progress to you the board and following through with the recommendations that are made by Miss Klein um and Miss Klein who you're going to hear from in a second um
058she's going to provide recommendations based on what she's seen here um and and she and I work together quite frequently to update progress so you know I document that on my end as well so I know exactly we have 99 tasks and you know 47 of them have been started or that sort of thing you know I keep track of that data um communicate with the Department you know she's she is your liais on to us and so if there is a question that needs to be asked she can ask that unless it's something that needs immediate attention um because one thing that we don't ever want to do is have this process slow down kids getting what they need and so if it's something that you know needs a quick response we can do
059that and then document later um Miss Klein will um provide updates to you and just sort of coordinate the Improvement efforts here and at the central office um your principal at the school we really need to be um open and transparent with folks um maintain positive and open communication with teachers and parents and reinforce that chain of command you know if you're if it's a school problem talk to me I can help you work through it if it's you know if it goes outside of here then you let me take it outside of here um that's really that chain of command and that communication structure is extremely important to the improvement process and lastly um teachers you know maintaining a positive mindset keeping it focused on the kids following that chain of command and being
060willing to embrace Embrace growth and change um one of the pieces that's going to be essential here is rebuilding the brand of this High School um when people talk about Pocahontas County High School how do they feel what do they say you know when you've got um eighth grade parents and they're getting ready to send a kid here how do they feel about that are they excited you know that's really the culture of your building is how people feel on a Sunday night you know and so we want to make sure that people feel good about coming here and that they are um engaged and committed to this process and to this school um moving forward and lastly you know I would just say everyone in this process resist the rumor mill okay um resist
061the rumor mill I know that you know we hear things and and you know word spreads and you know Facebook can be our best friend and our worst enemy as far as information goes um so if we keep the chain of command if we keep the communication there shouldn't be a need to believe everything you read okay because people will know the story they won't have to they won't take everything on on social media at face value and do what's in the best interest of him you know I work in accountability I deal with balance scorecard stuff and I deal with with you know Schoolboard stuff and policy stuff and all of that kind of thing and the best advice I can give you the golden rule of Education if you do what's best for
062kids make the decision that you would want made for your child um and not what's best for the adults and those two things really don't conflict that often okay so keep the focus on the kids build strong procedures and practices based on you know the core value of we're going to take care of these kids and don't waver from that and um like I said at the beginning it's going to be one heck of a comeback story and you know I'm a girl who's cried every single time she's seen Rocky so um you know and I know what's going to happen and I still cry because I just love I I love a story like that and and I think that there is so much potential here that um if we stick to the process
063and do what we know is best um it's going to be um a totally different story in a couple of years here so with that I'll turn it over to hold on just minute so sir I got a question sir so the state of emergency is it on it says Pocahontas County Schools but it's just specifically on the high school pchs is that b in school it we reviewed we talked to what we're doing is improving here and then we're working with the central office okay there aren't currently any recommendations or anything like that in any of the other schools but we wanted to make sure that it was a systemic thing because if there are improvements that are relative here that could then also apply to other schools say for instance if we're looking
064at systemically special education or Child Nutrition or Transportation or something like that then those would apply to all your school yes ma'am if it's a procedure at the central office or amongst your policy or something like [Music] that there's also potential for discovery of other issues if we're hearing us you know whether through Miss crime or whomever we may discover that there are other issues um and those things happen sometimes it's not you know the sky is not falling when that happens okay we'll we'll add it to the list we'll come up with the plan and and uh we'll execute that and be better off on the back side so any event that that happens don't freak out you know it'll be it'll just become part of the process and uh we'll work to fix
065anything El anything else that might arise along the way I got the question sure you're in accountability is anybody going is anybody going to be held accountable for what's happened here well it depends on what you mean by accountability because I think that this process is a form of accountability and I think the um the overarching goal is that we're accountable to our kids and so if you improve things for them I think that's more important than any kind of Retribution for anyone who may have made an error in the past I I set up I went to Stonewall and listened to to a meeting and all they talked about was accountability and doing the paperwork so it follows somebody so somebody else doesn't hire and down the road is anything like that going to
066happen is any of this stuff criminal criminal what do you mean I mean faly transcripts changing grades that's those two really bother me we completely falsify a transcript of what we were told let let me start by saying this we're not going to discuss any Personnel matters for not here that's that's inappropriate I whatever we can't get together and talk about it unless it's in an open meeting according to the state rules so I don't know when we're supposed to talk about stuff well you guys can discuss Personnel in an executive session if you wish yeah you can do that but we've got to get the report back from them to know what happened too those question back I mean that's what I want to know and if you have specific questions I just answer
067okay I me beyond that okay and and what we recommended in the report was continued investigation on those points um because you know I I'm not an attorney I'm just I'm just an old sixth grade teacher you know so what I'm what I'm doing is pointing out where additional you know I'm kind of like a metal detector we we're beeping and saying you know there might be something here you might want to dig a little bit but we draw no conclusion as to whether or not there was any sort of criminal activity or anything I'll add this if through this process it is uncovered that someone has uh committed a crime we would certainly find a way to address it through this process and that has happened in other places okay so that I will
068say that it is a possibility if that occurs that could be a consequence yes so okay so is there is there a a penalty phase for this I mean is like for this scrutiny are we going to enter kind of like U you know funding penalty or you know we being fined nothing like that at this point now this is this sort of a probationary this is just forar basically it cost you because you got to harm his client we got to pay for whatever that they need it's the responsibility of the county financially to get everything back on the breath well that's that's a big concern of the folks out there that's ask them questions well they probably there there's been there have been some counties that have suffered that yeah um through the
069spending of federal funds there are clawbacks on nutrition at times across the country um when they I don't know anything right now that rises it's not within the scope of disc that's all I am I'd like to thank you for coming and and talking to us both of you you know maybe you can come and update us not not every board meeting once every three months maybe in the middle of not have a pretty trip next time it could be snowing well we'll say six months you'll still get the fall be pretty I would say that Miss Klein will be more prevaling on that front I will say that you know we you know once we update power board at the state level we follow up with the visit so we would be here in
070the summer at some point or probably beginning of the school year to come update based on where we are at that 6 six or six one one more question I know you all want to get back to Charleston so uh we're gonna have to hire superintendent because Mrs fck is retiring how much input will you all have in that don't know that we've really had that discussion internally at this juncture um it's on the agenda tonight to to approve the school guys get ready to kick that into action every one of these situations is unique and we're we've been invol involved in a number of them um don't know that internally at this juncture we've had that discussion um well we certainly like to he recommendations you what we what we're searching for yes we'd
071like to get somebody to come in before Mrs B de retar and kind of work with her to understand this process and what's going on okay so well we'll take that back to the office and um work through that a little bit if there's anything we feel like we can R back to you all that might benefit you in that process we be able to so and you know Miss Klein's going to be an excellent resource in that too because she's going to be here throughout that transition process she'll be able to provide you know some stability as far as you know this is why this decision was made or this is how this this progress works thank you all very much you're welcome thank you I hello hello it's nice to finally meet you
072we just seen your name on the agenda you all president gr board members families students my name is dearra Klein and I'm pleased to be with you this evening I wish the circumstances were different that you weren't under this state of emergency but I will tell you to Echo um Miss CR Dr ker this is going to be a happy ending because you have I watch House Hunter sometimes fix his old house and stuff like that and one of the things they say this place has good bones you you all have oak tree bones in the teachers that you have in in the students that you have that um presentation by the children at the beginning of the meeting was absolutely inspiring and I see them at in the cafeteria and in the halls and
073so forth and I'm telling you these kids are happy they are Pleasant they are courteous they are respectful and any child can have a bad day once in a while but I'm talking in general the tone and climate of how feel in their school is and that means a lot and they are surrounded by carrying staff members from the custodians to the cooks to of course the teachers none of that you saw this evening happened on an accident every one of those presentations had a strong dedicated teacher right with them through the whole process these folks are amazing to Echo Miss crer again what we don't have have is processes and protocols and I've even heard some of you uh allude to this Paper Trails and it does matter because it does end up impacting
074Services as we provide them to children so I want to introduce myself to you real quick and I want to and I'm doing this not to be horn tooting or self-aggrandizing whatsoever I've been there I'm retired and so there's no need for that with me what I'm doing this Bo what I'm going to share with you is so that you that I can hopefully and begin to instill confidence in you in me so that you feel this this lady's up for the job um I have 37 years in education I'm 61 just turned 61 for through the year and 15 of those 37 years was in a classroom as a teacher primarily a high school English teacher for 15 years I Tau taught school everything I was four years as a high school assistant principal
075both of those situations or actually all three situations both of those situations were at a school that was closing and a brand new school that was opening um so I've had that experience as well and and that was unique and I appreciate it now I was seven years as a middle school principal which is an interesting world to be in and it was fun um and three years as an assistant super intendent and then eight years as a superintendent I retired June 30th of this past year well and and while I was principal um my school saw growth and achievement that astounded a lot of people at that time my school and we were actually named a National Blue Ribbon School there's still signage on that building to prove it congratulation as superintendent we saw
076significant growth in our achievement and our County stand ing among other counties we worked hard for that we worked as a team we went we didn't just look at the weeds from the Drone view up above we dug into those weeds and and made change we also while I was superintendent we passed two excess levies in their County and we also and people thought I I know fellow superintendants thought I was crazy for even trying this but before I retired I wanted an SBA I wanted a facilities Bond at the county level and I wanted an SBA award to build a new school we had a 100y old school that was three stories and an all wooden structure not a piece of metal in that building it was time and it was SC it gave
077me nightmares so it's was time for that thing to go so that was on my I'm a checklist person as it'll be in a minute and that's that's what I what we went about we passed a facilities Bond at the county level during Co and nobody thought we could do it and by goodness we did it it was the power of setting your mind to it working and teamwork together and it wasn't dearr it was a team effort that said we went to uh the SBA we had already gotten an SBA award the second year um that I was superintendent and I did it as just an office I didn't know that it was such a big deal and it was such a process and scary and and superintendant are the most collaborative bunch I
078could call Superintendent by any time of the day ask her advice on something you know we're we're Collective we collect but not about SBA boy you ask them a question all you hear is crickets because it's such a competitive field so I had to figure that out and I got we got an award my second year superintendent last year last fall fall 2023 we were the highest awarded county in the state now I think they've given out some money since then but at that time we we were granted the funding the highest funding in the state at that time now again I didn't say that to Brad because I didn't do any of that by myself I did that with the team and that's what's got to happen here we've got to Corral the team
079and we've got to help them understand the outcome goals and give them tools and let them go and this is one talented team I've seen them in collaborative meetings leadership meetings scheduled discussion meetings they are curious and let me tell you a staff that's not curious and I had one not as principal but as superintendent one time a staff that's not curious and just doesn't want bothered boy they're hard to do anything with the staff here is curious willing interested dedicated and smart they're wise and they're smart and they're all about what's best for kids and that's tremendous in what we're fixing to do so I'm glad to be working with them and people say at back home they say well why are you doing that I thought you were going to sit on and
080all did and but you know and I'm going to date myself here and some of you as well if you remember those EF Hutton commercials when EF huton talks people listen right there that's you when Jeff Kell call you you listen and the truth is the very truth is that I missed the creative process that is education there's no field that is as creative subjective and yet objective as we are and I miss that and probably if I taken a six month sabatical i' I'd probably still be in my home county but I was kind of getting a little I'm I'm a person who enjoys change I'm odd like that so here I am and I hope that you will understand that I'm here in a support capacity I'm not here to get you I'm
081not here to do anything but help and so far all I have found is willingness on the part of this this school and the central office and those are my two primary focal points now where are we themes so far are protocols procedures documentation and communication those are the overriding them within that we have worked together and I'm oldfashioned folks M Griffith Keeps Us current in terms of computers and such but I like checklist and I like them on paper and I've gotten some techy I color toad a little bit now but this is our checklist as to what needs done it is prioritized it is categorized it is done by round one and there are four rounds and they finish on July 1 and as superintendent assistant superintendent Kelly said that doesn't mean we're
082finished and Miss ker made that Point as well but these are the things that we've identified via the report plus living in this school and at the central office that need to be addressed so we literally had a status meeting this morning with the central office about about our list and what progress we've made I've been here since February 20th I did some remote work it was that was the snow time if you recall yeah and and superintendent Bost and I did some teams and so forth I actually came on scene physically uh February 20th and these are the things that we all have accomplished I have one failing here and I'll tell you why I had in mind that by now I would have gotten to every single teacher and staff member I want
083to talk to everybody on their planning period or on their break time and be very conscientious about time because that's their their time but but I wanted to talk to them I wanted to ask them about their perspective on the report what they think the best thing things this school is is doing and what needs fixed and just get that perspective I'm not half finished and that and I'm a real ambitious person and kind of Full Throttle so that's bothering me so I'm coming y'all just shortly and and uh and we just talk we just talked as Educators we talk craft and those three things got our discussion but as I was doing that we got sideways I guess you could say because the senior transcripts had not been thoroughly addressed and I want you
084to know that that process is is finished Miss uh Casey Griffith the Adena students and Miss Campbell the acting principal we literally now miss miss Campbell went on with the day because somebody had to but miss Griffith and I have literally poured into those transcripts I'm a high school teacher I said yeah I've got that skill set I can look at a transcript this uh Griffith created a system of Post-it notes and colored paper it was perfect we had the tulous tediously gone through every single senior transcript because it's senior season and we went through every single one of them out of 86 transcripts and I don't have an answer for you on this they're fixed out of 86 transcripts we found 42 errors 10 of which we considered pretty substantive none of them everything
085in them that needed fixed is been more importantly the issues for the students that may have been impacted have been addressed the credit recovery or whatever was needed so I want you to have that you know security about that I'd like to thank you for that well miss Griffith was the she's been the Maestro the Miss Campbell ran the operation while we were doing that all by herself so again A Team efforts without a doubt some things that we have accomplished beyond that and that was a that was a gigantic task but it's finished you may have heard us pooping and hollering about it being thrilled that it was finished this afternoon with the final ones now we've got to some point real soon start the Juniors you know the sophomores and the Freshman because
086we're not going to be satisfied until that's finished and even beyond that Miss Griffith is not satisfied until it is perfectly documented what was changed why it was changed and then that'll be communicated to the children and their families as well so that's in process as well these are things that we have seen good progress on I just want to share the victories school day testing is all that's set we have schedule training going on and there's progress in that regard that's schools do a lot of things but as far as achievement that sat school day test is Super Bowl and we're we are well I started to say Kansas City Chiefs but that's not the right one these days and and we're getting ready so no the spring activity planning uh Dr CER talked
087about brand building every year spring activities well all activities are important to students but these spring activities with prom with graduation with awards ceremony they have to be pulled off without a hitch and this staff will do that and Miss Griffith is going to to leave that in terms of Puddles with those class sponsors the senior transcripts as I said have been reviewed credit recoveries going on I feel comfortable with seniors now collaboration that word with the Department of Education regarding the 2526 bail schedule that's very important to a school you might think well what does it Ma it matters and these teachers that Miss U Campbell and she divided the teachers into groups of her they divided themselves actually to look at the different um paradigms for a schedule and they're doing that yes
0882025 is that 25 26 for next school for next school year oh so it's you weren't referring to policy you just referring to calendar yes to the next school calendar year 2526 yes and so that's ongoing and and I'm telling you that doesn't go on everywhere many of the schools where I work the it was top down princi will give you a schedule you were lucky you know it before you went home for uh summer so you kind of plan and think you you plan your units and think of this many times I came in first day of school and I know that happened here this past year I didn't know what my schedule was until the first day when I went to record to work that's not as it should be they're fixing it
089and we're working on and they're doing it as a team School leadership collaboration they have phenomenally collaborated and productive School leadership team meetings I've been very impressed with that and happy about that um she the the acting principal Miss uh Campbell she is not hesitant whatsoever to ask for feedback she exhibits decisive leadership strong leadership because she's clear and she knows she's got to be the one that makes the decision stands good for it but at the same time she is gracious and curious about feedback back from the staff and the kids that's not done everywhere ladies and gentlemen um they have they now have this was from the report the senior transcripts and this item was from the report the acting principal and den of students now have access to all transcription platforms that
090was literally stated in the report uh Miss Campbell as acting principal has conducted an lsic meeting my part when I was there it was very collaborative very AU authentic very honest but very productive at the same time the acting principal now has a mentor that was in the report Mr Barry Christ Barry Christ is is H the mentor for the acting principal also in the report was ongoing communication between the central office and the high school or you know the staff I can report that is happening by Leaps and Bounds like I said that Miss Bostic or superintendent Bostic has been here several times Miss Julie shifflet's here and I'm I'm pretty sure miss tripo needs a cot in a tent because she's here so much and that's a blessing that's a blessing she does
091that so you can go home she don't your told on is it's okay but but I can't tell you the collaboration that's and that communication is is very very responsive and ongoing and I'm meeting with the central office fairly often not like I'm boots on the ground here at the school best I can be but I'm also meeting with the central office about any issues there um the acting principal Miss Campbell has gained access to all communication platforms so that she can facilitate Communication in that regard with students and families and she's already been using it I believe and we've made this is not in the report necessarily but we've made progress on safety that's huge to me and we are reviewing the crisis plan we are planning three grills not active shooter grills or
092anything like that just basic School grills um Miss superintendent bosic Miss Campbell and Dwayne have addressed the cameras that aren't working around the school I know you were fortunate to get that cops Grant where you going to have new cameras next year but we need some immediately and Dwayne's all over there um also um the reunification memorandum of understandings with the spaces who allow for reunification in the event of an emergency Dwayne is also working on that he's facilitating those to make that happen so we're in good stad legally and every other way the updated numbering system for the windows the Department of Homeland Security has put out a new numbering system that we have to follow again thank goodness for Dwayne Dwayne is going to facilitate that as well and make sure those numbers
093are done properly and Miss uh Griffith is doing a door a classroom door numbering and naming system so we're making Pro progess and I'm very pleased with that progress and I'm happy to be here I appreciate this opportunity I am available to you for updates as you spoke about anytime you know how long take you to drive to wman County every night two hours and uh 38 minutes hey I live in a county we don't have a hospital it's an hour away we don't have a Walmart it's an hour away if I want good shopping I go to SC in Charleston that's really not that big a deal to me so two and a half hours a long time after days work by the time by the time I get here in the morning I
094need to be getting here my coffee's you know perked me up by the time I get home in the evening I need to be getting home but the work in the middle is worth it and it's fun this is me I I didn't really know how to be retired and I we sure appreciate you being here and helping us out we really do I'll do anything I can job is to here every day now no I've depends some days I'm one week I was here four days I think this week it will end up being a total of three but I do some remote work with them at home too I just I'm I'm as needed at this point I try to hit three days but it hasn't always worked out perfectly that way it's
095it's some weeks a little more some weeks a little less and maybe one on the computer you be safe try I I am I am I recommend audio now getting into podcast and a lot of these teachers have recommended podcast to so I appreciate that do you have any questions ladies and gentlemen thank you we just appreciate that you coming and helping us out then all all the good things we hear about our teachers makes us feel a lot better I didn't know Miss H worth was on the board and here she was we had to H it out minut known each other a long time but I I tell you these these people are fun they they make they make the business of Education fun and they're they're wonderful team have good outcomes thank
096you thank you we let our students go any yeah thank you Ry and Joseph certain Representatives hell hello so the last time presented up over here come to this side we feel like I feel like I'm a minister in church or something everybody's back upad no want s on the front row so National Honor Society conducted um applications they were doing last night at midnight um and with hopes that they would all be sought out through and Decisions by April I think was April 12 um we have results from mat Field Day Wade Garber placed first Eden Smith placed Sixth and Hannah placed nth in regionals top 10 moves on to State States so they'll be moving on and ell Marco and R Hardy placed 15 so um if the alternates don't in the top
09710 don't move on and um our SAT School date is April 9th Jor preparing for that especially in test strategies um and over overall environmental thing School we're feeling like the time minutes as well within our schools um the other day I arrived here 7 minutes late Construction in the road and um I got to the parking lot felt really B was about so we've noticed that it doesn't made um prom we have sorted through prom business and PR with be May 3rd at the opera house um a lot of students are really excited and Junior Community really paring on food and decorations and I think that's it for me okay hello so my first order of business is to touch on more seniors senior business and Junior business so in our test strategies class
098the other day rri Gardner Wesley Felton and Andrew Morrison came to speak about the Empire appal Appalachia stem scholarship and not only did they discuss the scholarship but they really went into a comfortable they got into a comfortable level with students talking about how it's okay to not go to college they told us about postsecondary school life and it's just a real eye opener and it's very helpful especially to the seniors who are about to go out on their new Endeavor and so we really were appreciative of that um another thing is is that Fred Kerber um he was he came in his wife is the cheer coach and he came in and he helps out with the football team and he redid the whole Fieldhouse by himself um with his own money he spent
099all of his own money on the things that he did down there uh he plans to paint the walls or if he already did I'm not sure I haven't been down there to actually look but I've seen the pictures he replaced sound systems in there replace workout equipment all at the expense of his own pocket so we should def definitely be thanking him for all the new add-ons to the Fieldhouse and to the football program um both basketball teams seasons have ended sadly the girls did not make it to States this year I've already talked to a few people about that and um baseball softball and track seasons have began and then my last order business isn't a high school issue but it's more of a community issue looking in um the other day I
100was strolling around marlington and I was taking my niece to marlington Elementary school and so my first concern with that and it might be due to lack of transparency maybe from the board I'm not sure or lack of my presence at the board meetings due to sports but it is a real issue that we don't have anything separating the playground to the community of marlington and I don't know we've addressed it I know that that was discussed but even then now it has been a while since the old Boe building has been taken down and I feel at this point it's kind of toying around with little kids like lives it takes two seconds to get into a car accident and it takes 5 seconds for someone to walk from the communi a bad person
101to walk onto that playground and get one of those little kids and those teachers have no way of Defending those little kids and the little kids don't have anywhere defending themselves so that's my first issue with M elementary school and then my second issue is that some of the playground equipment is definitely outdated um my niece and I we were on the playground cuz I took her for a little date and um there are two or three swings that are broken there's a lot of equipment on the playground that does not work anymore um I don't I'm not sure where the funding or anything to fix that comes from but it is a playground and the equipment kind of needs to work and the swing shouldn't be falling off of the hinges so that's all
102of my business we we have addressed that uh issue Dwayne still here we have addressed that and Phil you want to tell what he come up with you're here yes he actually he has a fence right now temporary fence that uh needs to uh um go out he has a um just today he called and told me that they did get approved for some B fill it was like $30,000 worth of back fill to go up against to make it safer right in the at the bottom and uh turned into work order for That Swing fixed sooner than later and it's uh you know um it definitely does you know needs some PLC um I will say that uh surprisingly two years ago I had another school visit and uh it was blade Elementary I'll
103say that and one thing that they told me they said how in the world did you guys get such a nice playground and I'm thinking you know I don't see that but their teachers that's one thing that they noticed because they said this is immaculate playground compared to I guess maybe what they had and then that was kind of an eye opener to think okay well maybe our playground is not as bad as that I anticipated or thinking that it was but not that you know um that's just one thing that uh um that that was brought to my attention and you know about this time March a lot of times will go down and pressure wash you know the big fish and making sure that things are cleaned up but uh you know it
104would be nice to see some improvements in the playground I would definitely would be nice so thank you well thank you we don't think you talk all right Sher Sher rack appr your budget explanations with a rough draft the 2526 budget and state formulas which one you to PowerPoint we might want to bring him up here so he can see this he's time about the bu should he got a copy of agenda you want come up here and set you no where you can see the oh the PowerPoint yeah are there gra no it's a PowerPoint a power about budget so we want I told him a minute ago me put this this is a presentation that was provided to our legislature in regards to our school funding calculations and I have given you the
105calculations in your folders to go along with this I have revised the some of the items and at the end can't get or it don't work well there here I'll be your clicker I just have to use this this would have probably been better at the board office because we do have two screens so our state aid for is divided into seven steps you have your professional Educators in the first step and if you look so you've got in your folders a couple you've got your budget you have two documents that have a lot of wording in it which will explain the state aid if you need to go back and look at one of them is the executive summary and one of them is the abbreviated summary which I'm going to explain those but
106you might want to go back on the bottom so Step One is our professional Educators and that's what you'll hear the step process which is the preliminary computations Public School support program for the 25 26 year it actually says 24 25 our state department hadn't fixed that yet for us but it is 25 26 so the first section is Step 1 a 1B and then you have step one basic professional educator allowance the state supplement allowance for professional Educators and then the total of those and it has all 55 counties and pocah is in um in alphabe order and the overview is steps two is service set three is our fixed charges for salaries step four is transportation cost step five is professional student support step six is our other expenses our substitute employees which
107is 6B and 6c and falculty Senate step seven which is 7A which is is we use for our instructional purposes that's the allocations that we give out to our student our staff to use for instruction step 7B is our technology funds step seven C is advanced placement and D is our teacher and leader induction which is pretty new we've had it maybe three years they State keeps a big chunk of it you don't get all of it step eight is a total wants to see this can come on up yeah so step eight is a sum of 1 through S so if you're looking at this page it has all your step one is on your front page your step two is your second page which is your service employees okay step three is your
108fixed allowance which I talked about and they have it calculated 8.23% that covers workers comp Social Security retirement and peia is pulled out of that and then another place step four is the loun for transportation which it is the cost the for repairs and then we have a step before for for bus replacement it's separate and then they provide you a total in the step for total allowance step five then is your professional student support which I'll talk about it a little bit further in the program which it or people like libraries and guidance counselors and TI begin step 6 a which is still on your page is your allowance for your current expense which is maintenance expenses step 6B is your substitute cost for professionals step 6C is your service Personnel substitutes 6D is
109the allowance for faculty sentence and then the total and your next sheet is your step seven A B C D and then your total step seven so it's instructional and technology advanced placement and then professional development is the teacher induction so if we have new staff or we have staff at need training that's the monies that we're using for that we have teachers now going to PBIS training those funds are being used for this and then step a is your basic which you see pocah hunus is 11, 11, 85746 Step nine is our local share which here it shows 4,824 646 but then in your Lev rates that you have it shows a different amount which is 5 million something 5 million I'll take that back it's an it's six local share is shows 646
110we don't and then they add the two together or subtract the two and then step 10 is allowance the County Board that we get on it which is 7, 32,00 $820 but at the same time in this sheet that you have with our budget it shows 6,734 850 because we have to subtract out items down below a faculty Senate the mentors charter schools which is one two about $400,000 we have to take out $117,000 3 $390 for chared schols so House Bill 206 in 1920 it took what we had in Step sevens did away with all that and put it in a block grant so that step seven money can be used for purposes be for salaries if we so mine but we also have to follow those guidelines of being able to provide instruction
111to our teachers or having supplies for our teachers to use the classroom so we have kept whatever allotment that they give us that's what we a lot out in our step 7A budget same way with the step 7B they also say you can use your transportation for your bus if we needed it we could use that and not theide a bus but then we have to also look at the requirements that you have to have buses after so many miles so we just leave it where it is and continue to do as the old law says so state aid funding is based on fulltime equivalency there's certified adults we have to have in place and and because we're under the, 1400 and because we are the most ryal with .96 students and one square mile
112we get the majority of that we I guess I shouldn't say we get the majority we are the example that they use and then they gauge other counties that would get more or percentage of and that law also changed where there's more and actually there's a new law that is trying to be passed that everybody would at least get 1,200 instead of that's all that affect us we drop for 1400 would not drop us it doesn't hurt us but it just brings those other counties there's 11 of them that are um in that group that are below the 14 and there's a lot of we're like we are only 900 and something so it would bring those other ones up there's I think it's Pelton county is the only other County that gets the 1400
113level to but everybody else just gets a percentage which is like 10% so they don't get the full so they're just trying to help those smaller counties there was Seven Counties that got the full P there's and I think says in your work I think it says it's only 11 we have 22 counties that are sparse counties yes the last sheet that you have in your book it talks about the density and it divides it and it shows you your 11 counties that are or 22 counties that are in that program which we get a different percentage of our state aid formula because we're in that bracket if you are a low population then you're in another bracket a medium and then the ones that have more students which it says if you're in Low
114Five to five to less students per square mile and the medium is 10 and 20 or more and there's your breakdown as far as we get 72.75mm and it's based on enrollment one thing about our step 7A that we have to consider and it hurts when we don't have a good attendance in our schools that is one of the items that we get step step 71 attendance for our students big deal yes a big deal so if our students are not coming to school then we get less and that's up and down every year so step one it's talking about the funding allowance and it is a long formula and you know I tried to calculate on the difference which I'll have at the end of the slides what that 1,400 would do if it
115dropped and they give us a another sheet which tells us how many students well I had 500 and some and their calculations are 400 and something different but the fun allowance they give us money for our state principal's increments they give a three-step increase for Math and special education teachers and there's bonuses for classroom teachers with 20 or more years which is the $600 once you hit the 20 then you get $600 and then if you got some teachers have National certifications we have three I think and they get a supplement plus we at the county that will gives them give them another thousand on a year so professional instructional Personnel include our classroom teachers our Librarians attendance directors and a school psychologist which we don't have that person and so we have to and
116that professional instruction for Spar county is 91.7% so that's so our professional that's our Educators in the classroom right so we're under under budget with our current Staffing not for professional instruction no you're too over we have to have at least what they tell us 91% or they would dock us funding and funding so now overall we are under service where over and what's that contributed to contributed the service Personnel you're over is that bus drivers is that aids both but we cover a lot of our service people in other funds if we didn't have them in federal funds or state funds then we would be over big time so if we would lose federal funds or if I don't think I have any in state funds they're mostly in Federal special education and title
117programs if we didn't have that we would be over it was it was better for us to put them in that those funds and cover our teachers in our 11 funds did the state allocate any money to go along with the requirement to have third grade success Act well they did but because we don't see it because we're over in service we're fund for 1400 so we would really if we had yeah we would be over if we didn't have I mean they give us I think it may be four so if we didn't have those listed in there we would be four more over and once we get ready to hire these if we don't do a transfer like we're doing then we would be over we going be covered okay so the step
118one covers a 200 day salary anything over that the state does not cover they do not cover my salary they do not cover Transportation directors they do not cover maintenance Child Nutrition or technology system specialist so our TSS which is our technology people we are covering one of them in County funds and the other two are counted in the state step seven funds step 7A step 7B used to be that we couldn't we could only put so much in Step 7A of a teacher we us used to cover half a teacher or a whole teacher and then because they state aid will cover teachers but they won't cover our other support staff which you have to have what about virtual what's what's how does where's virtual tell me about virtual what do I need to
119tell you about virtual I don't like it okay it it costs us a lot is that part of our we don't get any funding for that we are required by state code by which is state law to offer virtual a virtual option to middle and high school students that's Pap correct it will cost us over $100,000 I'll have a probably $150,000 in your budget line to cover those and those students are still considered pahas County School students do we do we are we paying on anything other than like do we do we any like Charter Schools or $17,000 dollar comes out of our budget this year for the 25 26 it's $17,000 the open one or maybe one's open and set it for the side Mr W yeah wow so even Char can't use that
120money you can't use it because you got to pull it down they pull there we should I think it said five students it's costing us $117,000 there's now eight charter schools in the state there were six last year other counties are paying astronomic 2627 million of our state aid funds is going to Charter Schools teachers do not have to be certified and there is a virtual charter school which was which is most of these our students these are all Charter Schools I think it's in the state so it's different than our virtual that we Prov that we give that option is different than the virtual charter school because if they go to a charter school they are no longer students so if you have a teaching degree in computer you can have a charter schoolg
121you don't have to have teaching degrees and you can even get startup payment I mean you can so what kind of char schools are these if we don't have to they're obviously not acad a lot of them are owned by our legisl no account that's what I was told by one of another Treasures ask at an Ethics meeting that we were at and they said they stand within a different scenario they do not have to be an Ethics as our board members no there's no there there's no guidance there's no they have they can say you can teach come on can I get a $100,000 no no you don't get qu that all that just as your salary that's what you get for running school they're actually do have school now your okay so what
122about we talked a lot about mentoring here we have mentoring for Mrs we have mentoring for here who where does that come from that would come from the step 7D that we have step 7 and if it if we run out that then we have to have other funding I mean and it depends one year they gave us 100 some thousand before the year was over they took part of it back instru so I mean can we can we can we can we not pay that to our staff to Mentor our own staff or do we have we do we do I don't we I don't want to see any money go out you know I like M deed I'd like to see that money well we that's different state that's different that was choice
123but if we have a new teacher in our school system and we have a teacher that in the same field that is willing to teach has to have specific training to do that okay then we can hire them in that position and we do thank you okay so this is the step two where I was talking about which covers our service personnel and there are some new laws that may help our bus drivers um which was a service personale and I think it's a step a b and c or one two and three that may move them up to help them in the chain so they are paid on educational bonuses so our ecats might get a pay grade because of supervisory of students we always have all of our aids to sign supervisory Aid
124papers so if a teacher has to go out of the classroom they can feel that slot and they're getting paid for it every day and then there's special Health Care procedures pay that we pay them if they've had the training with nurse J and then we have the special Provisions funding for the full-time employment they get Personnel counted for service if they are 261 the state covers their salary unlike a professional they cover a 200 day on a professional but they count more so a 261 we' be counted as a 1.3 persons instead of one in our state aid computations and then the fixed charges which talks about the social security and the workers comp the step four was your student transportation and that's based upon the prior needs and it tells us and this
125one because we're sparse we get 95% of whatever Transportation costs are from the prior year plus they get an allowance for the bus they pay 100% of the insurance of our transportation but they don't pay 100% of our insurance on our maintance which I thought they did but I found out last year they didn't and they pay 8.33% of our replacement value for our bus and then they do pay a small and we for percentage of State students in L of Transportation so if they have parents bringing a student out to a bus stop they cover some of that not all of it so the district gets paid onethird of our state average allowance for instructional bus trips they don't cover Sports so that we eat so it's good when we have our if we
126have a class going up here after hours then we can count those mileages as [Music] education so our house bill 206 which I talked about earlier which helps to cover which is now a block grant instead of and part of the 11 fund instead of a 61 and the fund stay there we also still continue to do that but it is in a general fund account but if we got an hardship we could use those funds and we wouldn't be reprimanded for it some would say and the step five which is this professional student support which covers our nurses school counselor we get we are allocated five plus two because we're in a scar so we get seven of those persons so in the step five we're and it says we're covered five for the
127100 and that's where I said we had the twos ahead of myself House Bill 2561 changed the other current expenses and this happened I think in 17 several of us went to Charleston about that time that's when the two House Bill 206 went through which helped and then this one which now our square footage was all by student count and now they look at our square footage and give us an allowance for that which was helpful has raised our money that we do get for um M and that and then we get for our substitutes and our faculty Senate our step 6B which our substitute costs are only 2 and a half% of steps one two and three and then our faculty Senate so we get nothing compared to what we need to cover faculty
128or to cover our substitute cost so it's good when our title programs will help cover for professional development substitute or if we can use some of the step 7D Appropriations based on the pro appropriated in the previous year plus 10% of the growth in our local share for our step 7A funds so they start off with $150,000 for each district and then the balance is then allocated by our enrollment and our average daily attendance back to this where that 206 is was part of a block grant and then our step 7B we are allotted 20% of the growth if we had any and then 30,000 to each board and then it's also based upon our average daily attendance and enrollment that's the technology funds and then advanced placement which is for dual credits and college
129classes and we only get about $2,000 2500 for that each year we don't get a lot House Bill 4619 which was an 18 added a new step to the pssp which is professional support to cover county level implementation or comprehensive systems for teachers and the leader IND doctr which is the mentor funds that we are getting the first year they gave us a big chunk I think it was almost like 200,000 and then they decided that was too much and then they started pulling it back and they're keeping at the state level to give as needed so our step 7A which is in your folder is the sum of all these steps and then the local share and that calculations B based of 85% of our projection and then the regular Levy collections for the
130year less the 4% for uncollectibles an allowance for processor value which is in your paperwork to approve tonight which is more than this allocation in this paperwork we don't always get that much I mean we always have Summits we don't get from uncollectible taxes so taxes so this is where there's adjustment in our taxes and that's a 9A sometimes the state will make an adjustment since our tax base went up this year they have not all the last time they did not make an adjustment for prior to they have made an adjustment reducing our state aid if they do that then something has to be decreased on our end that's in the L fund and I won't know that probably till legislation is done and then here's where we fund the charter schools 99% of
131stat 7A goes to them if they have students that they've taken from us they build us mid year another 30 some thousand so last year it wasn't quite 117 but if we have students that go to them they bill us for those who who send you that bill ma Charter SCH who runs the the charter schools the charter schools are they P County yeah that's what we said there's a virtual Charter some of our students but what I'm getting is does the state does the state oversee them where does this money go it goes to the charge of school I don't know whether talk to your legisl the ones that whenever this first started your superintendent was on the charter schools too and now they if now they' changed that and there just no we
132have no jurisdiction of a charter school there's no there's no accountability maybe we should be just become a charter school well I thought about that I thought all right retirement allowance is provided which is 7 and a half% for our new retirees used to we only have a few left in retirement one which get 15% I know one them and then our peia and I got the r last night for peia our rate I mean it's increasing 14% but it's $400,000 more this year the state does pay for that except they don't pay for anything that's in the federal grants and and they don't pay for anything over a 200 day contract so then that will come out of some thought of money so just to explain so 200 day contracts are your teachers your
133classroom teachers um your Aid that are in those classrooms so anyone over that your principles um we actually gave extra time too to our de of students because we wanted her to have time in the summer to work on transcripts and send things out uh I think all of us at the board office are are we all 261 um so we're year round employees and that's why the 200 day contracts they have the summer off um and weekend well in the holidays and we're all we work all those all of our principles are not over 200 someone's 220 correct 40 some of them 240 and we have different and like head custodians are 26 ones we have some it's 220 we have some staff it's 215 secretar 215 um we have one's 220 because for
134instance like the secretaries I mean getting prepared for the school year they're at the beginning they have to be in there to make sure everything's there and the end of the year to close up the books and everything so that's why they have't you're explaining I ask question uh and I want you to explain this to like I'm five when you when you say steps all these steps they that's been dozens of slides now what exactly do you mean by that right is this the pot of money that we are given by the state and then the steps are broken out into what that money is allocated for yes and then okay and so how much of that do we have discretion over versus how much your 11 fund that's your general fund that's it
135that's it is the you can see that's our general fund that's where uh your tax dollars go here's the steps if you want to look at across to give you H but your general fund is your uh for our taxes right 33 and 3% of the taxes that you pay in P County comes back to the board of education and then under the 1400 students that can go into a general fund so all these steps come with the regulations on how you can spend that as well as our title programs when we're looking at Federal programs the title one title two they all say this is you could only spend this spot of money on so our Title One schools can only being spent at the title one can only be spent at Title One
136schools which is our elementary school yes so Suzanne had a question well since you're bringing up Title One schools if in the future as we're seeing the federal education department is demolished how much funding are we going to lose according to our state superintendent who's been working with her contacts in Washington DC we are okay um so I mean I'm assuming that's all going to filter down so we are not putting any of our federally funded people on riff and transfer because of that I mean so F we good well you like I said if it does happen would that funding come from in the future it's my understanding would filter to the state but right now it does filter to the state like don't get that funding directly from Washington DC it comes to
137the state of West Virginia and then it is dispersed according to the counties of their poverty rates um and then you know we it comes to your county and then you have to decide which schools get that based on the poverty rates at your individual schools and we answer to the state the state answerers going to the FED I mean we have reports that we have to do all the time for any of our Sr grants they all went through the state again I've only been on one Federal review since I've been working uh in title programs which is most of my career and that was I think two years ago the state department said would you mind answering some questions for the federal governments um usually it's just to the state level we answer
138the questions and they're good and it now it's going through what we call a government planning system so it's all electronic we have to update answer the questions for documents that's the way it's done so we will get different allowances throughout the state some of them would be for County transfers increased enrollment where's only like two or three counties I think that got that this past year uh enrollment growth we get an alternative education program which helps the high school here and it's only like4 $116,000 which I'm not sure I think it's in this year this budget if we had an a student that needed um assist assistance with another language we would get funds for that it's we're fortunate that we don't have but we have to partner with another County then we do
139so because we're in a Consortium with some other counties um Greenberg county is actually our lead and Mr TR po can even speak more to this but because they have a higher percentage in our area and so we work closely with them if we get a student they've been great to send up somebody to uh help us but the little bit of money that we get from title three which is English language leers funding is minimal it will it wouldn't um provide a teacher salary or an aid or anything for those students it's more or less for material yeah and then we get money to help our educational exceptional children and then that funding form again this successes that we have received I guess in the last 10 years which was that house bill 2561
140which gave us some leeway on cost of the maintenance student transportation funding the expansion of the step seven or step five and expansion of student density funding house bill to six and the third grade success act which has helped some of the smaller classes so concerns of ours costs associated with a student discipline lower social economical population special education needs those continue to rise one of the big issues when we went well when Pendleton County went to the state this was their list and it was the sick leave anybody that was hired July the 1st and on sick leave that they receive is only sick leave prior to that we can use days of leave that we didn't use for sick as days of retirement and the old retirement system they got to use it
141for insurance too so we've been trying to hit legislators and saying you need to do something with those days give those days back so if you're out there talking to our legislators tell them that they need give us that I would help our there is a bill in the legislature to do that yeah I think it is I read that didn't because that's why it's substitute that's why it is and they understand that they actually have asked me I get surveys all the time from wbde saying to answer questions and I've had two about the substitutes y i mean i that that has Jim Brown and then service staff they're only funding is based on the 200 day contract professional should be that because we do get paid on just just keeps falling out and
142then because there are certain people that are required like a treasure we don't get funded Transportation maintenance they're required to have a director in those positions but no funding so these are things we don't understand why they don't fund and then our technology people if we didn't have TSS people we wouldn't have the Internets the computer we wouldn't have this thing I mean we've put and I was going through the list of items how much we have put into the school system in Grants in the last 10 15 years which was about $25 million that's what we went out and got grants SBA grants USDA grants CAU grants state grants we had some for went out and got some for professional development I think we had a couple of those as prior years besides our
143regular which has helped us stay in the position we're in financially but again those grants are earmarked for certain things yeah I mean so can't they right out yes and that's what a lot of them then ask you how you're sustain your work after money is spent so there's no factor in our formula of the state aid for inflation and then we talked about the bus drivers and overall service pay scale is inadequate compared to similar job skills outside of our public education our people can probably go to Walmart or Hardies and get a job for the same price or more allowing Charter Schools more latitude to teach students than public school with our state aid funding that is a concern and why we have school buildings that have certified teachers in them and that
144can do that teaching but why are they letting them go and we got people that only maybe go to school two days a week if they're in a charge of school that's a concern so the impact of the 1400 formula and this is the calculations if we use the 8,469 62 that was our student her student in October 24 if that dropped and it's not in our legislature I was I that's what I've been watching for Fring Fray because we've had two sessions now with our legislators talking about the state aid formula what if it did drop if it dropped to actual count of 494 the difference of what we get and 11,000 11 million to 7.5 that's 4 million and $4.3 million whenever of our funds whenever I was reading the house bill they
145one thing in there they talked about was dropping it to 12200 well there's one in there for 1,200 is the minimum I have not seen anything that's going to change it yeah change it I haven't either but I was going to say the 12 do you know an actual cost per student 8,469 that's an average that's the money we get but what does it actually cost s well and I'm gonna say it would depend on the school that they're in yeah um you know the maintenance of that school the transportation that's an average across the county average across that's what that's what the money is lot for us but I was wondering what it what the actual cost some are 11,000 some of about 8001 yeah and I've done the average calculation today per pupil
146child ratio it's a eight for one school and it's 11 for the other four we have 11 students per one teacher an average on average an average we average 11 te 11 students per teacher y you're going to a private school that's basically what it means huh our test result should show it yes can we do that calculation quickly you like the the total by Mr just said total budget over total number of students I don't have either numbers hand but I'm you got the total budget right now I I I not an accountant so what I mean I don't know without stopping and calculating it out Morgan's working on it what is the where's the total budget I don't 24 million okay and that that includes the state the step well that's an average
147it will change but that's an average for now no Let's ignore the change I understand that just this is fed and state all funds all of our all of our expenses not it's except for our 51 fund I did not put in yeah it's close Okay so we need to take a break yeah I believe we're going have take five minute break everybody's [Laughter] left and I will say that Mr Anderson has a lot more than 11 students or teacher in classro that is the average average to be taken lightly because Marl Elementary Elementary classrooms are overloaded but the average Hillsburg at average zal hur's got five six no average hillsbor is eight yeah eight I did the calculations for and then they all got 31 Green Bank also has um pretty good size classrooms
148some Harlington we uh elep middle I mean they're pretty and keep in mind those Elementary classrooms with 20 to 22 23 those are your classrooms that may are learning those foundational skills Elementary classrooms and you're not seeing progress in your scores it's reled to that overloaded in those classrooms because you have one person in a classroom of 23 kids might not see the progress when you have a classroom of two you know like it's a it's something to keep in mind when you're looking at when you say average 11 well that might be your average but that's not what you have that being up and down average right but then when you look at your data and you're not any progress in third grade fourth grade you've got 24 kids you got break it down
149by school yeah you look at it by school yeah because it's not really a county average of 11 kids in a classroom that's not really school to every school something 851 what's the current enrollment it fluctuates day to day they leave the charter I think it was 892 in October 892 that's what I was thinking it was 8 something we're still missing Morgan we're still missing the Morgan he had to go make phone calls somebody had to milky couch so if the if the current if the total budget is 24.7 million and there are 892 students unless I my math wrong we're spending little under 28,000 per 28,000 it's it's generally when the numbers that come to me when the state provides it stuff it's usually 11 to n per student so where are we
150I don't know I mean they may not use all those calculations they may pull out some of the maintenance and transportation out of those numbers I don't do at the at the college level so that it looks better it's the cost of attend spending every either they pull out leftover money out there I'm just trying to get a big picture so we can all reason about this well if you look at up there she had it up there we're spending $8,400 or what was it on each numbers are widely different 46962 on average but is that what you're getting from the state not this includes federal funds yeah and I mean so this includes funds that's not based on okay yeah no but the number to Budget everything we bring in Grants it's grants this
151would just this would not be everything because I wouldn't have my Snowshoe grants in this this is specifically for step seven or the step 1 through eight state aid piece and the federal grants that I have to budget salaries to and then I put everything else that I know that's going to be in a Fed program in a reserve account that's what your numbers look like I have left out the piece for our SBA Grant at this point because I know I'm going to use some of the funds and it wasn't going to be right till I get you a real budget so whenever we get school building uh authority projects approved we have to have matching funds too okay not 100% there's a percentage that they like in the cheering it depends depends on
152what Grant I mean the last one I did 19% one of them I done less I mean it just depends on what I think we can use so see even with the the USDA Grant we also had to have correct some we had to have 15% for our USDA we just closed which is a million dollars if we get it and we'll have to it's not quite a million it's almost a million so we'll spend close to $150,000 I have to put that aside in a fund to cover that and that us da Grant if we get it is to replace devices because we know I mean these the devices that are student have oh I know my my kids tell me all the time they need re you know and we need to get
153on get have a plan to refurbish that or replace and we have been replacing some of them but not fast enough right I guess what I'm what I'm looking for is just the percentage State funds versus percentage of federal funds versus what we have in reserve just like the big Topline number that so we know if in that budget right there if you look at the the the difference between government funds and he's not going to know what's you got know what the steps is a lot of detail a lot of information but it's not not easily that justable for me and so it's not easily that table for anybody who's asking me about I'm just looking for f is that's our general f fund 11 is our general fun but when you say the
15461 it's got some state in it too so I can't say it's all federal I mean it's a small percentage this is why we have such a problem telling people about the budget because if you don't know where this money comes from and then you don't know what it's spent on most of it comes in from the federal government or state is earmarked for a certain reason absolutely the only thing that we have control over basically is our 11 account and very little of that that's right because that it's just you know because you have to pay the salaries you got to pay your salaries out of that and stuff so you're I mean there there's really nothing left pretty much because you funded through maintenance or transportation and you have to ship money but
155shift money if you run out of Maintenance you got to put over Transportation or from Transportation back to maintenance so Sher what about about what percentage of this of the budget is used for personnel 75 76% probably that's what I you don't think that much I I don't I'm not I wouldn't will say okay I mean this is I think I think one time you calculated years ago and I think it was like 76% was was salar yeah so what can we do 708 yeah yeah we're waiting on you Sher you go okay that could change at 710 when so what what can we do I mean there's smaller numbers in the classroom has not helped our numbers our grades I should say I'm asking I've told you what we are with how many student
156to pupil ratio my question is with our seventh and eighth grade be better have better opportunities if they were at this high school with CTE Spanish band and maybe other things they could work with our other peers from the 9th through the 12th we've got room for them and our sports program we have lost so many kids we are and I mean I I just want to throw that out I know nobody wants to do it but and I have in here that we close two schools that would be and that was the only thing I calculated was custodial fees and and a little bit of Maintenance cuz most of that is done to the general funds the general location number was $200,000 we could move majority of the people care more about they don't
157want to change than they care about the actual students so I don't want my grand Great Grandpa's school to close I care more about him even though he's been dead 200 years than I do the future of our children so I mean so that's sounds like we got a lot of selfish people so our numbers of students keep dropping we've never passed nexs l in the last 10 15 years 1970 it was 1960s that we passed a bond and I was working on those numbers because we're getting ready to do another major Improvement through SBA we're going to request marlington Middle School roof and whatever else we can get to make the million dollars and it may be all roof but those n those items were questions I had to answer in there never roughly
15840 years old yes and I have the numbers in here so we could bring our Workforce under three roofs and we could have an effective learning environment for students and be more efficient I I've I've say no I say no to the seventh eth grade at at pchs and possibly making the Middle School uh a k through eight and keep k through eight marlington Middle School is not big enough well I mean I I don't agree with bringing the seventh or an eighth to the high school I think that's too much if you have three schools have CTE classes well they can still have they have yes we can we can we can make a plan for that if we're talking about closing two schools no I'm just giving you ideas you would have a
159safer School environment because we'd only have three schools and still of five to contain not I just thought about that I'm glad I don't have my phone with me you have a cfp that you should be following a 10e plan exactly and as the person who was I don't know the spokesperson for the cfp I don't know what you would call what I was the Yeller we wanted we had people who wanted to consolidate schools and they refused to put it in the CEO yes we did well was a very contentious argument well there's some there are some things about that if you take the school out of the out of the neighborhood you lose the neighborhood people lose their because they go to schools for different things they go for spaghetti dinners you know
160if there's a fundraiser they have it at the school uh there's a lot of things that go on besides school in a school uh you know we looked at that years ago about Hillsburg when we got the cafeteria the new cafeteria Bill and uh you know you saved that Community basically where if you pull it out there's nothing for nobody to go back there I I disagree I don't see how we're what we're doing is saving our community when we've got students my kids included that moved away and don't want to come back because there's nothing here offered even compared to greenber County but then there's not jobs I mean one of my sons is making almost $200,000 a year with just with just a four-year degree he could not come back here anywhere in
161the state of West Virginia and do what he's doing and make that kind of money and educate his children the way he's going to educate his children there or even in another state and I'm not not saying that cahas county is California or Pennsylvania or nothing like that but I do know like the lady was saying earlier there's absolutely no reason why our students are failing yeah we our teachers are highly educated and any moment they could leave here and go to another state and make almost twice what they're making and the cost of living is twice as high it is and your taxes is four times as high it is but it's still we're not saving our it depend it depends on what state you live in whether you have to send your kids
162in the middle of the city to a private school or a public school if you go to a private school it's going to cost you about $110,000 a semester and that's become an issue here because we're losing kids virtual school I think Mr Anderson Marlon Elementary technically should have almost 400 students but 200 of those are virtual or homeschooled why yeah why are they virtually or why would you choose to keep your child out of an environment where they have contact with people to make um friends that friendships that last forever they learn how to associate with people they learn how to talk to people people they learn how to deal with people and that's not happening you want know Absol truth you want to know the truth kids don't want to get up and
163go to school and parents is not making them well that's the part that's the deal if you if you look at responsibility huh responsibility we didn't have a choice no we didn't well you got up in the mornings and you went to school and the law didn't have to be and it didn't so but we've changed the law to fit the child and parents don't make them get up and go parent that doesn't want a parent if you're a junior P County High School you can pay $900 and go to what is it pen York and graduate in 30 days or three months because you bought a diploma you didn't earn that dioma you did but so we got to figure out something to offer people to say I want my kids there yeah and
164we're not offering enough of that I mean it it really shocked me that the middle school doesn't get what they should be getting I mean because who's going going to come here and want to make $30,000 as a band teacher I mean our secretaries I look at the budgets and other companies and I'm like good Lord we're way under pay as a secretary I myself maintain at least 200 students on a daily basis by myself and people wonder why I can't get stuff done well now you know why all the white trucks leave here on Sunday evenings they leave their families here but biggest part of them go to Virginia or nor Carolina to work because that's where the money's at right and then somebody stays home with the kids yes well so here's some
165Financial requirements that we have to follow we have to stay within budget or we will have a state takeover we are required to have a reserve contingency in our budget the state requires 3% if we can they need five that's between $750,000 to a m250 on a $25 million budget our government financial Officers Association which is over us as trasers and our wbde requires a 16.7% there's no way we'll ever have that we didn't have a contingency many years ago we did good to make a budget our buildings hillsb gym Hillsburgh gym is 1941 it needs a new grow the cafeteria was built in 14 the main section was in 77 and addition in 88 our high school 169 it's over 50 years old all of our buildings are old our Green Bank Elementary Wing
166was built in 77 then the other piece was in 89 and we've just put a new roof on it we've added HBA system to it we've also added an HBA system to marlington middle and our marlington elementary was built in 77 with a cafeteria built in 89 and then we just replaced that roof in 24 and the boiler and the boilers and spring didn't put a sprinkler in we put a sprinkler in a couple years PR too I didn't out it I was just trying to think the home Sunday what items we were and i' had some of this in I just had to go back and add the other but I went through and figured out what we had put in in some of our big projects which added up to about $25 million
167but we got a long ways to go because there's no way we can build so when I talk about an excess Levy it's hard to even get one through it used to be you could do a special election and try to get one to pass but now it has to be done in a general or the primary you have to do it almost a year in advance and it takes another year to even get the funds and with a levy you have a levy call and so in that Levy call you're stating what those funds will be so it's again you're not asking asking the taxpayers just for a lump um to spend however you want you have to put in there what you're you will be spending that muchoney on the other thing to
168answer dian's question a bit further we can't haul kindergarteners or first graders on the bus longer than 30 minutes there is there are waivers huh there are waivers you can ask for a waiver don't mean you go to get it but you can ask for it especially I I think that also include you can't pass by A Perfect we we maybe need to look at Chang some bus rout Cesar to go to to go to Marlon Middle School because they're on the bus for 45 minutes to an hour and they're bypassing one school to get to the other one but new laws have got it in place that you can go wherever you want that's yeah you can go whichever school you want to As Long that was built that was in last year the
169superintendent Rand guy just tried to ship har kid so I don't know y'all you ask I don't whether I can get to you or not but in our Pocahontas County site and I didn't hit that is that what you wanted yep so you in the financial year at a glance this will take you to the state site which gives you a financial report you can go in it and click and it will give you you have to go to the year pick a year you have to go to the county choose it but there is a place to go and see budgets there is the certified list is in here and the financial report and a budget report you can go in there and play with it the budget will actually give you the budget
170right off but the financial report you will have to click the year you want the county you want and what projects that you want to see and it will bring up a report yeah since you asked I think need to have a Frank conversation because there's lots of options and I have no idea which one's best I but I I'm reminded again of of personal budgeting or even you know weightlifting and losing weight you either get you bring more income in or you cut spending those are ultimately the two options it works if you're trying to lose weight or if you're trying to gain weight it works you're trying to uh save money or spend money and we've got to know what those numbers are I know where the knobs are so we can either
171raise our funding or spend less those are the options that's that's what you're doing you're trying to raise your funding but they'll only allow you because your your sense of Revenue is a certain amount it's just like you working on a job and you bring in this amount of money if you have to put this amount back say for retirement I'm using that for an example you got this amount of money to spend now there there's where you're at okay that's then they're not going to raise it they're not going to raise it so you're not ever going to get a raise but your your requirements is going to go up right so maybe I go get a second job and maybe that's a levy good luck with that because the last time we tried
172Sher will tell you that we worked hard on it didn't we we was all over the county and we got opposition everywhere we went if soon as you mention close the school here go K well we may not have an option you yeah and think but that's you know is that something that eventually the state could come in and the state comes in they'll do what they want they don't ask make that decision they're doing it in rph now they can make that decision without anyone else's it don't matter if the state comes in and takes over we sit here to draw a paycheck for being on the board but we cannot make a decision and they don't have if we decide to close the school with a huge process you can't just yeah but
173we've got to have meetings and and go through about a year before you close a school you got to send in all the information of why you're closing that school but the state can do it they they can just do in and say we're closing this school and that school and you live with it over overnight I mean I don't want to see the schools Clos but Ian I don't nobody since Sher brought this I guarantee you my phone off hook and we're not closing any schools let's lay it out there so this budget gives you your salaries or your revenues stream at the top well the expenses for salaries or exact amounts I shouldn't say exact amounts because they have to be rounded at least to the $10 and that's how they are I
174usually round up sometimes I round down just depends those salaries can't be changed because that's state code okay now I got a question and then I'm going get you out of here because you've done wasted too much time you wanted the budget I did but we needed to have just a budget meeting but you've done fine we're not what I would like to have at the next meeting is the salaries for everybody in the board office now listen what gets paid they're there you no no no they're not there you I want I want to know what Dwayne makes for transportation I want to know what he makes for uh maintenance you haven't there's a site on here I looked over the weekend and those numbers do not match up to that they don't match
175so we need to know what they because that's last year's numbers okay we want this year's numbers because we're going have to hard superintendent we're going to need to know what to pay him number one number two whenever you break down if you will let me go over that you will have it listen well we're not going to do it tonight we're not doing it tonight but I want break it down for us and have it to us at the next meeting I want to know what the TRU officer makes how many jobs does she have does she get paid CTE if she does how much why do we have two CDE director CTE director or three why do we have that I I want to know what each one of their job titles is
176and what they am I cannot give you job title how the hell you pay them then I can give you a salary but I cannot give you the job descriptions because that is not my job well somebody give you the what each have you can get I mean my gosh that's not hard to do do you want me to go home and have a life of my own no I want you to I didn't this weekend I haven't even cleaned my house because I stayed and worked on this stuff and then you all don't want to even listen to I'm A Boss for been a boss for 40 years I don't care how you have to get it get it it don't matter to me you're not supposed to tell me I'm telling her that
177no Sher we are listening but you're not I was going over this it won't take long to we're gonna finish it but I I do need to know them things though this board need to know you have it you know I think talking about moving forward like Mr SL was talking about earlier we need a the population is declining I think it's inevitable before we're for some kind of let's get back to this budget and question I'm done with the question I mean I'm done with that finished and you was giving me the devil anyway I'm telling you I haven't went over this with you it won't take long to go over it I know we'll do it next time go ahead we're you don't want to do it now okay can we do it
178next me because see get home okay you would if I'm here I can't guarantee that I will be here because I also have a spouse that may have to be out so okay item number six is approval thank you Sher by the way approval of the following consent Financial requirements painer payment of vendor listing for $2,511 47 pay payment of local government purchasing card 143 58446 C is February 18 20125 payroll employee payroll 29692 764 March 5th 2025 employee payroll notice to retire annual payment of WVU extension services and a payment for for for of performance contracts and budget adjustments do I have a motion move not have to excuse myself okay I'll second okay Mrs hollinsworth made it and Mr mcav second it any questions there um the WVU extension um is asking for
179an increase of it's in there it's in your yeah so that was um that's not part of that's not part of the discussion right now yes well it's $2500 um and I would recommend the board to increase that to include that 2500 we make go from 5,000 to 7500 and I think that the request have you got that in here Sharon yes it is I know but do we it's h you're on or doing it right now I I would like you to I would I would ask the board to approve that because you mean the extension service is a wonderful service for our school system Sherry what's your opinion to this I told her we would she actually went for the 2500 she as me to do the whole five but then she went
180to 2500 to County Commission to cover rest okay so I did tell her we would cover he said step s BS okay all those in favor sign saying I and let it be showing that Morgan what's the right word to use refused from this motion carries recused yes number of 7even approval scheduled proposed Levy rates is listed below for the physical year ending in June 30 2026 class one 1940 Class 2 3880 class 37760 and class 47760 do I have a motion Mrs hansworth made motion Mr second it and there's nothing we can do about this for approve all those in favor sing saying I motion carries number eight is approval for Sher R treasure for f County Schools bonded requirement by the state of West Virginia asport code 189 days SE effective for the
1812526 physical year do I have a motion Mr Mrs hollw made motion I have a second second Mr MCC second can we do that what did you all decide we have to do it according to state code right well we got to approve it for this but the problem that I had sh and I I talked to Mrs bti about this is I don't know whether you can have two professionals uh jobs at one time I I know but if we if we approved you for secretary only that's a substitute at an only I put and it's a service I put the exact question I wrote it to to M Mr Brown at the state department and told him exactly what it was and he said no you cannot do it you cannot hold the
182other because you want a budet then you have well I asked iend this this one but I called I called Mrs bti right after that we done that and I said I think we can't do this legally we need to resend it then she talked to Jason and but I think we do need to put on there to resend it and I I hate to say this I you then we have put then you can do it then you can do it that's FR he says word word you understand what I'm saying we got Pro we hire other people with Emergency Services I'm not going to do it but yeah I can I can give you the email chain if you need who well we talked about but do it say professional purp she is
183in a professional position she can secretary another job just resend the other piece cuz I sure will be on there well we can't we can't do it tonight but you can put it on there to resend them once she decides to reti we can if she ever does I what she she'll get are you all those in favor signy saying I motion carries your heart approval to revise policy 5410 promotions accelerations placement and retention to be put on public comment for 30 days do I have a motion Miss made motion to have a second I'll second Mr MCN second it all those in favor do we have a policy now I mean do we have a projected policy that you're putting down on I guess so then you have one generated from the other the
184schools and they're they're putting it out now this is what they're this is and it's uh tab number nine oh all right all those in favor motion carries number 10 approval the following policies policy 0165 is meetings policy 5200 is attendance and policy 5421 is grading do I have a motion was made a motion do I have a second I'll second can we discuss each one of those separately you can yes pleas please if you look at your tab 10 is actually the public comments that we received policy if you look at policy 0165 which is the meetings there are some a lot of concerns from the community about that policy um just the budget part of it and also the amount of time um or meetings yeah it's the meetings to have two meetings
185per month we did for 50 years on the but we haven't and third Tuesday we did for 25 years it it I I read these comments because you sent them to me and I think you sent them Miss hollinworth I wonder how much of these come from the staff because whenever I look at this some of these come from staff what was what will it cost us I'm not really worried about getting paid for it I just want know what's happened what will it cost us to have two meetings a month what's our going to be our jump in Revenue jump in expens $160 time5 and okay how many EXT me I'm not sure what I'm well I'm I'm against this it it what the issue on my part is we're already short staffed of
186the central office and we have three persons at least in doing accounts payable paying stuff salaries payroll is taking stuff home every night every night can I put some clarity on this can I put some clarity on this this all started whenever all this problem started up here and we were we and miss ball stick was instructed to be three up here three days a week we weren't getting any information no updates or nothing so we decided that we would do it every two weeks at least maybe we could get updates on what was going on okay I have still yet to receive an update on anything going on till here so that was why we were going to do it I don't want to do it two weeks either I don't really agree with
187it but I would like to be able to be communicated with and updated on what's going on I will explain to you that the state department instructed us not to discuss anything with the special circumstance review and Miss griffi is shaking her head us to anyone before they were here tonight you can't you can't update us I can now but until they were here tonight we were instructed can't confirm they me the same thing yep I don't know I don't agree with this whole thing because this you know we were talking about chainy command and all that well this is the chain this the top right here we're duly elected officials okay and evidently one what I've Gathering all the way since I've been in this is the state is pulling all the strings now
188if they want to do it threatening and all that come in take it over and fix it and leave us alone but I'm get tired for this review because I had concerns about what was going on I knew there were policies and procedures that were missing and we have ask for the state to come in and help us because we knew we had a lot of work to do problem with that if this I think wasn't wasn't me and Fry of course but I think if the board that was shared last had been kept informed on what was going on and you got in it late too yes you did would have been informed on what was going on instead of being kept in the dark and felt like mushrooms that this would have not
189happened at this high school but nobody give anybody information they sat there and they told the board what they wanted to hear you know we don't want to hear the good all the time we want to hear the bad but I don't think the the last board H any bad I think that it was smooth sailing for the last five or six years and everybody was afraid to upset the apple cart well the apple cart is upset there's apples rolled in everywhere now and you know we heard the state tonight can we go out there and talk about it I hope so because they just seen it all over P County virtually uh you know Kelly told me that too but this is a free country people there's people fought that we can talk to
190anybody we want to exactly and you know I don't have to sit and listen to what Kelly tells me to me if you know and every time I said something TR we'll take you over I'm like frosting do a better job than I can fine I have at it but until that time if I'm sitting here I'm going to do the best job I can for the teachers and for the kids of Pocahontas County thank you sir and you know if if they want to job they can damn sure have it all they got to do is walk in and take the seats because Lord knows they pay us so much to say you're the five of them that it's unbelievable and it's not just thatting at these meetings I'll bet you I'm on the
191phone three nights a week with Texas and em from parents and concerned citizens and you know people want to know because why my kid got kicked out of school and this kid didn't and they was in the fight together and you know I don't get into that I don't text you that stuff because that's routine school stuff that's when you need to refer it to the principal of the school well of course but we don't you know principles done took care of it they just didn't like the outcome you know you're going to get that whenever you hung your shingle like to be board member and in the past a lot of parents got their way by calling board exactly and then we have and I mean Miss Bost took the heat for this but
192this is Terence beans doing it is I mean she took the heat you know I would call that man and talk about things that was coming to me and like you say we were smooth over we don't talk about it and and in Personnel I know Personnel law Miss fost can't talk about personel with us we're supposed to sit as a jury I need this information we got from Mr Bean was every time two staff members had an argument we got email which effectively said we'll never address this because you all had PR they were sitting here and in the state department was telling us transparency and and all that well they preach one thing and do another yeah I mean I just don't I it makes you feel like Bea your head well it's
193just like the programs that they say you have to offer this but they don't give you any more money you know I take a break if you want to talk about U the next policy is 5200 attendance most of the responses or the concerns were about educational lead that again is out of our hands that is a state law issued by your state legislators right okay so I read that I got a question for you about that they um um hold on I actually got a whole page on first of all I think that the attendance policy we have out should be tabled um because just because of your comments that you're bringing up the I don't think we're any position to vote on right the well the attendance policy is based on a state
194attend what it tells you you have to have a policy but they tell you what the policy you what policy is it follows it follows state code what does okay for one example help me out here what does curricular mean well those are curricular are your fill trips okay so here's one a question come up from the public about this who decides to co-curricular does the state decide to co-curricular or do we de side to C we do fil trips fil trip they tell you got to have them but we got that right so we can literally we can literally we can literally we can still literally decide what's going to be approved what's not going to be approved if we according to our co-curricular definition right yes okay well then the issue is the
195educational lead that we used to provide to families like if they went out west on a family vacation and students SP would complete a presentation when they return that is no longer approved in under state code under state law as a approved ABS they I mean they'll just be counted absent they won't be counted as an approved AB as educational leave it'll just be they were not in school that day well it just seems like such a gray area the whole co-curricular thing what are are other schools what are they allowing this is state code so all 55 counties everybody's doing the same thing yes that's why that's why we want that letter WR remember we marlington and the kids are going to write a letter about the attendance policy and we that we're all
196doing the same thing no other Count's doing anything different state of West Virginia there is a there amendment in the legisl about allowing for to be one of the to be exempt from that all right that would that cover them when the kids go to the state fair right so then the other policy is 5421 which is Brady not and I want to say that um due to the comments we're actually going to include the honors classes as a um waited Court weighted classes and we've talked to um Miss Campbell here as well as Miss chiplet and we've talked to other counties and a lot of them require a c an honors class in order to be included as a weighted class so we will be adding honors to uh that policy for a weighted
197course so are waiter they are waitting then yes and in the policy that I mean there was a dual credit AP and we did not select honors um but we are going to put honors in there because of the comments and we've worked out you know we've discussed it with you know Miss griffi as well we disc that at our Le so we'll we'll be adding that you want to table this or what you want to do I think I think that the I think gr or the attendance be pulled out that's my ready all those favor signif saying I opposed I I'm opposed okay let the record show that Mr Gibson voted against but motion carries 4 to one approval of Electric Credit waiver elect credit waiver for a senior student at Pop hun
198County High School do I have a motion made Mr M's made the motion do I have a second second Mr McNab second that uh tell me about this a little bit how do we what's an elective credit for a student at the high school so in policy 2510 talk Lou policy 2510 It lines out all the requirements you need to graduate at a state level the state requires 22 credits for those it's all your math science health and PE yeah social studies whatever whatever plus four personalized credits as a county we said we want to have 24 so sometimes students get into a bind where they have failed some things or transferred in out of places so they don't have 24 credits but they do have 22 and so when we talk about those elective
199credits we mean the two elective requirements that the county has that the state do why in the world do we require 24 State re we don't because you appr the grading all all those fa so this is for one caught in the M yes okay all those in favor sing about saying motion carries I remember when we uped the appr approval for Stephanie Poppy and W Hina Rina to take approximately 15 students to Washington DC to visit the Holocaust Museum and the African-American Museum on March 23rd through the 25th of 25 the transportation provided by a no needed tour bus do I have a motion Mr M has made a motion do I have a second MC second all those in favor saying I car approval for elanar Bell and Holly chesnik to take 17
200e8th graders on a trip to pic Highlands Recreation Center in Franklin West Virginia on May the 27th 2025 Transportation provided by a bus do I have a motion Mr MCC has made the motion do I have second Miss Hollands wor seconded all those in favor approval of mutual agreement between the PO County Board of Education and Teresa mollins Lambert concerning changes of instructional date and compensation to have a motion made a motion do I have a second were seconded has everybody looked that over and can understand what's going on there is is this V happy yes okay all those in favor sign saying I I motion carries approval ofou between F County Board of Education and the regional math field day do I have a motion made a motion have a second second it all
201those in [Music] favor approval of facility use agreement between the PO house County Board of Education and the American national Red Cross to use Marton middle school as a disaster shelter for victim victims of disaster do I have a motion made m m made a motion I have a second second as second all those this is something we've already this is already inforced that's why we put the generator for years ago so let's just redo it Comm okay I'll good with that all right all those in favor motion car move Mr before you get to 20 we cannot adjourn we have to reconvene on April the 15 absolutely yes because that's going to be the at 8:00 in the morning yes okay you're you're right you're right I'm sorry I okay uh approval for the
202West IND School Board Association to conduct a superintendent search in collaboration with the Poconos County board of education do I have a motion made Mr MCCS made the motion and Miss hollandsworth seconded I do have a question do we have to post that position I checked with uh Mr Brown and he actually he sent you an email did you not get it um that they actually do the posting it is not posted by us on front line it is posted through this yes I've been seeing some from if you email if you didn't see it because I started to answer his questions but he directed them to you but I can tell him like I can now remember have you got the email send it to us because because I if I got it Miss
203well he just needed to know the number of board meetings that we had left when my last day was there answer but I didn't know if you already had I had I hadn't because I don't even remember seeing that and then he also explains the process because I ask him about that because we didn't know as you know because we post other employees well the the board has done this one time before and went through the school Building Association when they heard Patrick law now that was been quite a while ago and kind of just went with the flood you know so but this time we want to like they said we want to cast a pretty large net to see what's out there the state may have some recommendations don't know okay all those
204in favor signify saying I motion Carri approval of parent and Community volunteer has everybody looked over that and don't have a problem only got one okay do I have a motion made okay Miss hansworth made a motion do I have a second second all those in favor saying I you say I sleep night sleeping I sat here punches me keeps me awake approval of service and personal Personnel do I have a motion Mo have a second sorry okay Green Bank Elementary Middle School unpaid medical for Holly Chestnut uh effective March 10th 2025 for a period up to 12 weeks through June 2nd 2025 retirement of Greg Morgan as music teacher for hillsbor elementary and Marlton Elementary due to retirement effective June 30th 2025 retirement of Pamela Bennett as evening custodian 3 at the high school
205due to retirement effective June 30th 2025 volunteer Paul Hill as volunteer assistant baseball coach effective for the 2425 athletic season volunteer as whan lock lo as volunteer assisted track coach affected for 2425 athletic season Mentor uh Janette Wagner as mentioned for Melinda Ruth Tas County high school starting March 2025 through December M 2025 so it's the remainder of this school year and into the first semester of the next school year employment of Christine Campbell is principal of Pocahontas County High School effective March 12th 2025 this is she is currently as acting principal a retirement of Scott Kelly a school bus operator for Pocahontas County Schools effective June 30th 2025 employment as the following is substitute teachers for Pocahontas County Schools uh Aaron Baldwin and trist Taylor and employment of the following a substitute special education
206classroom bus a for po County Schools uh for the 2425 school year Jason Castle I to remove that until we get further information I'll second that okay let's do it this way let's pull him out are there any more we want to pull out I'd like to pull Christine C okay are you going to vote on those separately yes will we going to vote on Castle or we just well we okay we what what we're doing here to explain to everybody we're gonna pull out Christine Campbell and Jason castle and we're gonna vote on everybody else except them and then we'll vote on them individually later SE so we're voting on everybody except them too all those in favor signify by saying I motion carries now uh let's vote on uh Jason Castle do you
207want to table that until the next meeting and pull him off till we find out or you want to put him up for a vote let's vote on him okay voting on Jason Castle all those in favor signify saying I opposed I motion don't pass motion turned down all right now Christine Campbell we're voting on as principal as po Hunters County High School effective for March 12th all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed I I vote fails three to twoes that mean she is she's not she got voted down yeah she'll be the inter we find matters of the board Mr Gibson oh man we we got a lot um break it down quickly this meeting was good sorry the girls didn't go on further I think our teachers are
208doing doing a wonderful job and then the report from our um the reports from our Dr P are good and encouraging don't you think so Dr poins worth yes um I'm happy to go into spring and confidence and I think that we're in good shape I think we I'm looking forward to a good finish up the year finish strong that's what I M holsworth Mr mes no Mr MCN yeah I got a just a couple uh just to let you know Jonathan Taylor has reached out to me and I we've reached out to the mire they're going to come in and do a presentation and info meeting on the coming linemen which I think is is good I used to do it whenever I was I was there they'll get that in follow up on
209St Mr Gibson I wish to girls could have won one more game then we could have been in Charleston but they had a great year anyway uh I got two other things with the uh I think the Board needs to be aware of the the marlington elementary school loading and unloading uh there's been several we've been in contact I Dwayne's been Mr Anderson superintendent ball uh law enforcement other there have been a lot of people looking at that and I want to throw out my suggestions and you all can then we can do whatever uh we've been wondering what to do with the old Board site down there and I've talked to Mr and I've met him down there one day I sit down there and watched it and there there's a lot of things
210I don't like about it uh one thing is we're blocking a a highway the state department of highways it's not us it's the parents and evidently the parent there's been letters out they're not listening okay imagine that but then we're teaching our kids our kids they'll go pick up the kids or drop them off and they'll just they'll run across the street going down towards the old Board office they don't use the crosswalk they'll go diagonal from the from the libraries right across the four-way intersection I mean and with their parents their hands you know so we're not we're not leading a good example but with the old Board site I I think and you all correct me if you're you think I'm wrong I think we can take a portion of that that pad
211down there and I think we can with some work uh I think we can make one lane or two lanes where they drive down Pull in come up drop the kids off and pull right back out in the street we can have one lane or two that way we're on board property we're not breaking in we're not asking anybody break state laws our kids are off of the street they're over on our property they can go in and out that door which Mr Anderson said they did that in Co so that's what I would recommend now it might take a few dollars to get that up we have to put some like a those Highway barrier things you know and get it laid out people don't like change but I think this is what's best
212for our kids and and everybody involved CU it's a matter of time where somebody gets run over somebody gets hit something's going to happen there it's not a good situation and you could still use where they where they have the handicap access now leave it alone that could be just for handicap and have the police there if they find this theate parks in there find them that's that's my suggestion on that uh the other only other thing which I think Philip was prepared to to uh answer Katie workman's concerns on the threats and all that but I'm not we're not going to go into it uh he's got documentation where he had sent stuff and they were informed and I would suggest ask that uh U Katie would uh follow up with the principal that's
213the right teacher or principal first teacher it happened in the there's two different yeah I got that call Katie you need to go to uh the teacher and then you follow that through to Phillip and if you don't get that then come to you Miss bti M the director in charge of Elementary then you go Chris and then you go to Dwayne are you well uhing this that's all I got during this turnaround problem that they had before the two parents was jumping at each other uh I got first I got an email from Katie and then I got a call from Phil Mr Anderson and he assured me that uh Mr Gibson was coming down to take a look at it and and would figure out what was going on so uh but this
214was in the road where the school there's no that's that's up to the church department or police department or whoever if it's happening in the road you know that ain't up to the of course there's a child involved you're going to get involved but I I didn't think there's any children involved at that point traffic violations CA the issue yeah exactly but uh but I think if we if we if we make them go over there we could take that stuff out and it's safer bottom line is safer for the kids I'm telling you they they don't pay attention to cross walks they don't pay attention to nothing they don't they were get out of school and they take off so I think you're having more trouble in the mornings than you are in the
215evening so aren't you I think so well at the U the drop off you know it's thing is if it's not convenient it seems like they just uh you know it's well the parents are in a rush to get to work probably right evening leave ear Mr MCN is probably right if we could do that down that would be an idea it's certainly worth taking a look at Dwayne oh yeah we we talked about that and the other one this was not this was not on her child this was another parent who called me pH you're probably aware of it were they was a threat made again their children right has has that problem been addressed we don't get to see you so yes absolutely and it's been addressed and and it's been handled taken
216care of through uh U you know one thing I will say that we have is great counselors and we have youth heal service and we also have uh those those mental health um you know agencies in place that U we have but you're dressing absolutely not uh yeah it's not going to un addressed thank you sir U when he addresses something I usually get a phone call going hey this is what I took care of so okay all U I don't have anything that's it you got same concern idea they call me and and anytime you have any questions or concerns please call me I'll get back to you you know with any of that we we usually reference them back to the teachers and then and i' be glad now one thing parents if
217they're if they're listening they got to understand they don't always have to agree they can go through the chain of command but they don't have to agree you know so they can go to the teacher and then if they don't like what they hear they can come to you and right you know usually they get the same answer all the way to the top but they they don't have to agree they can keep moving up the chain that way right all right our next Board of Education meeting will be held on Tuesday April the 1st beginning at 6:m after a calendar meeting at 5:30 at the board of conference room in Bucky West Virginia and now we will not adjourn this meeting we'll go to a special Levy meeting will be held on April 15th
21820125 at 8 a.m. on the board in the B conference room in Bucky West Virginia did I do that right Sherry I can't adjourn this because we're in till April 15th and we get paid Cherry for every day we're in meeting now you started it you'll never speak to you had it you she carry it I'm afraid I'll drop it AB